09-18-04 - Sacramento, CA - Jack Harris and his Utah Posse are enjoying - to say the least - a banner year. With only two events left in the 2004 season, Harris has cinched the VRA World Championship and won everything in between. Some people are referring to him as the Greg Anderson of Nostalgia Top Fuel (the ultimate complement) as no one can remember when a car so totally dominated a class in this venue.

Harris' latest victory was the annual Governors Cup - the last major event of the season for Sacramento Raceway Park. When all was said and done, Harris and crew were collecting another winners check after setting low ET (5.78) and Top Speed (257) - track records - in his final round win over Howard Haight. Enjoy these photos from the event.

Harris heats the tires for his first qualifying run on Friday night.

For once the weather at Sacramento was cool, comfortable and perfect for racing.

The car left hard and was on a great pass until the last 200' when a combination of tire spin and a cross wind move Harris left where he took out the finish line light. This resulted in a DQ run and a badly damaged front wing.

Qualifying session two found Big Red in the left lane sporting its smaller front wing.

With Jeff Diehl in the other lane, both cars back up from their burnouts.

Another hard leave and playing it safe, Jack netted a sub-par (for him) 6.012 @ 221.58 for the # 3 position.

Kenny "the fuel man" is armed and ready for anything with 35 gallons of nitro sitting on the tail gate.

Round 1 (5:00 pm) - Harris was paired with Adam Sorokin in his first race as a Top Fuel driver.

Harris and crew go through their normal post burnout procedures.

Both cars are brought to the staging beams by crew members... note Sorokin's car is, at this point, going in first.

Harris puts the first light on - the starter is looking back at Sorokin.

For whatever reasons, this race produced the only controversy of the event when Harris lit his first staging bulb and waited for Sorokin to light his. Sorokin lit his first staging bulb and then Harris, who's clutch was getting warm, lit his second light. The car creeped just enough to put out the first light leaving Harris deep staged. When Adam started to move in to light his second, the red light came on. The starter thought that Adam was taking too long to stage and switched on the red, although Adam had only used 5 of the 7 seconds generally allowed. It was a hard way for the rookie to lose. Even the Harris crew agreed that the starter short counted. This is not the way Jack likes to win races. Nonetheless, Harris ran a stout 5.890 @ 257.37 to move on.

This is a nice sequence of shots from the run.

The Utah Posse, celebrating another round win, on their way to pick up the car.

Between rounds the crew does their routine maintenance. What's noteworthy here is Billy "The Kid" Robins with his hands in the clutch can. They were shorthanded for this event and Billy, who normally takes photos and does PR, was forced to actually work. His thoughts - "That clutch is HOT!"

"Leave my Carl's Jr.burger alone!"

With the sun setting in the West, Harris waits to be called up for round two.

This would pair Nitro Thunder with the reigning World Champion, Jim Murphy - a race the fans always love to see. Both cars left together and it was a close side-by-side race to three-quarter track when both cars had engine trouble. Murphy suffered the worst damage with a blower expulsion. Sparks coming out of Harris' engine signaled some nipped pistons. Jack took the win with low ET to that point with a 5.845 @ 232.77. Murphy slowed to a 6.006 @ 201.54.

As they often do, the Nitro Thunder team saved their best for last.

Paired with Howard Haight, this started as a close race but Harris thundered away at the top end winning the event and setting new track NTF ET and Speed records in the process.

Due to an incident involving a jet dragster (following the Top Fuel final) there are no official Winners Circle photos from this event - so the Nitro Thunder team did their own! Next stop the California Hot Rod Reunion.