The 2004 Goodguys-VRA racing season came to an abrupt end when a strong rain storm hit the track just as Jack Harris and Jim Murphy were staging for the Top Fuel final. After two days of unseasonably cold weather and countless oil downs, it was called a draw and the prize money was split. Since only one final had been run (Top Fuel B-Field) that left all the other classes without a clear winner as well. Nonetheless Harris and the Utah Posse left Bakersfield with the VRA Top Fuel Championship and Low ET and Top Speed of the event.

 

Pair six of the first of two qualifying sessions had the makings of a dandy. Newly crowned World Champion, Jack Harris and Bill Dunlap in Mike Fuller's 250+ flyer.

Both cars left together and racked up great incrementals until...

Both cars were on great passes with Dunlap slightly ahead of Harris going into the lights when all hell broke loose (hell being a nitro engine coming apart). Dunlap had his face full of fire and oil and his hands full of race car.

Incredibly Dunlap managed to keep the car on all fours and out of Harris' lane. It came to a stop down track with only minor contact with the guardrail.

Harris managed to detect that Dunlap had a problem and shut off early. Still he had to dodge flying parts. Since Dunlap took out the timing lights, the recorded times for both cars were tossed out. Dunlap 5.757 @ 246.50 - Harris 5.747 @ 0.00. With only one session left, two of the big dogs were still on the porch.

Being only a two day event, the second and last qualifying session was also held on Saturday under the lights. Harris was paired with Lee Jennings Jr. (sorry, no photos). Because of Dunlap's Q-1 mishap, Harris was on the outside looking in but he made up for it here. His incredible (for this track, this night) 5.826 @ 259.36 left him 'only' #2 but that was top speed of the event to that point. Jennings had no fire out of the pipes by 800 feet and quit with a 6.685 @ 147.75.

First round of eliminations on Sunday was De Javu - not quite - from 24 hours earlier when Harris and Bill Dunlap hooked up for the potentially disastrous first qualifying session. The outcome of this match was much prettier and by all accounts, the best TF race of the weekend. Harris left first and held on to a stellar 5.814 @ 252.17 to 5.838 @ 250.27 win.

Round two featured the new VRA Top Fuel World Champion, Harris and the now consistent five second car of Denver Schutz. Harris made his usual 10K rpm burnout then he and Schutz backed to the starting line side by side. The only thing missing was the rapping of the throttles at each other.

Schutz tagged Harris on the tree and held a pretty good lead to half track where his car got loose and he had to lift before he crossed into Jack's line. Schutz coasted through with a 8.717 @ 83.58. Harris threw smoke into the air in the lights and huge numbers on the scoreboard... 5.774 @ 259.74. These would stand for low ET and Top Speed of the event.

If you look closely at the crown of the rear tires you can see the "chunking" small sections of the tires coming off. M&H is working on this problem.

The crew celebrates the times and acknowledges the crowd.

The big dog final was to feature the biggest dogs of all - Jack Harris and Jim Murphy. But as mentioned on the header, the final round of Top Fuel 'A' was called a draw when rain halted the event. The race will not be re-run or made up. Jack Harris is the VRA World Champion.

2004 NHRA World Finals - 262 Run