Brett Harris - 2006 Goodguys Fuel & Gas Finals

Bakersfield, CA - November 03-05, 2006: For Jack Harris the 8th Goodguys Fuel & Gas Finals was a true mental and physical exercise. Between trying to get his son Brett his first Championship and driving a Top Fuel car intent on throwing part/oil at him the old man was almost feeling his age by Sunday night. But all is well that ends well... Brett won the 2006 Goodguys/VRA Top Fuel World Championship and Jack went to the semi-finals coming out in one piece.

Photos and full story below.

Once again Jack was in the seat of John Rodeck's car which, come 2007, will be a Team car to his Nitro Thunder entry.

But before things got serious in Nostalgia Top Fuel, Harris made a pass in Flathead Jack's nitro fueled dual flathead powered digger. This is a real crowd pleaser and a fun car to drive.

The car is fitted with a reverser to get Jack back from his long burnouts.

Flathead Jack watches Jack The Sheriff launch his twin. Unlike the TF cars the tires on this car don't "wad up" at the hit.

Off on another 180 MPH joy ride.

First Qualifying Session - Friday

About 1 hour before the first session the car is fired up to warm the engine and check for any potential problems.

The first session went off at 1:47 PM and with the session moving at a record pace (no down time at all) Jack Harris in John Rodeck's car was paired with Bill Dunlap in Mike Fuller's beauty.

Both cars backing up from their burnouts.

Final adjustment before Jack stages.

After decent leaves both cars had problems down track.

From the 60' mark on Harris was battling tire spin and a car that wanted to do everything but go straight. The Sheriff threw in the towel with a 6.783 at 168.06. Dunlap experienced some engine problems and shut off early to a 6.268 at 194.72.

Second Qualifying Session - Saturday Afternoon

The second and last pro qualifying session went off right on time at 12:01 PM. The weather remained on the cool side of warm and the track excellent.

Harris was again paired with Bill Dunlap but in opposite lanes.

Once again both cars back up together.

Henry Walther makes sure Harris stays in his tracks.

Neither car left particularly well and it went down hill from there.

Dunlap nipped some pistons late and slowed to a 6.213 at 223.54. Harris' ride went away at about 800' filling the sky with dense smoke - killing the engine and the right lane.

"Send me a clean firesuit!"

Round One of Eliminations - Saturday

The first round of Top Fuel Eliminations kicked off at 3:50 PM. The weather cooled from qualifying but the track remained excellent. Jack Harris and Mendy Fry did their burn outs. Harris, who had two miserable qualifying attempts, ended up # 17 but got in on the break rule when Rick Rogers couldn't make the call.

The heavily favored Fry's chances were over at the hit when the blue car went up in major tire smoke and Harris got an unmatchable lead early.

At the other end Harris clicked it to an easy 6.190 at 193.34 win. At this point his incredible CHRR luck had following him to the GG Finals. It was one of the only runs all weekend he wasn't fighting to see through an oil soaked visor.

Round Two - Sunday

The second round of eliminations started at 11:15 AM. The final pair was Jack "Mr. Lucky" Harris and Denver Schutz.

Schutz got an early lead but it was gone in a hurry when he smoked the tires at the hit.

In spite of a nice pedal job and recovery by Schutz, Harris was too far gone and he got his quickest time slip of the weekend (6.004 at 228.13) but it was another costly run for the Rodeck gang.

Covered in oil, Harris had a real handful from the 1200' mark on.

Being used to these kinds of things, Harris did get the car safely stopped but there was another huge oil clean-up to do on the track.

Semi-Final

The first semi final match up pitted Mr. Lucky (Jack Harris) and Mr. Consistency (Rick White).

At the yellow White grabbed a full tenth lead and never looked back. Harris blew the tires at the 60' mark and called it a day. White cared his fifth straight five-eighty time slip - 5.842 at 252.17.

As for the Rodeck car, look for some big changes on it for next year. For one, it will have some new body parts and a Gary Beck blue paint scheme designed by Henry Walther and sprayed by Jack Harris Body & Paint. Why? Because it will be part of a two car team with the Nitro Thunder entry driven by Brett Harris. They have also guaranteed that their late season engine problems will be resolved before the March Meet.