Bakersfield,
CA - October 10 - 12, 2008: Brett Harris and the Jack Harris Racing
team came to Famoso Raceway play spoiler in the Top Fuel championship
points race and to win another California Hot Rod Reunion. They
accomplished the former by taking out Jim Murphy in the semi finials and seal the NHRA Hot
Rod Heritage Series top fuel championship for Troy Green. In
that round Harris ran a career best 5.69 which made him only
the third member of the 5.60 Club and gave him lane choice in
the final.
Harris was paired with Rick White
who had been running consistent 5.7 times all weekend. Another
5.6 for Big Red would put Brett in the winners circle. However,
it was not to be when the potent and usually reliable hemi in
Big Red went sour at the end of his burnout. By the time Harris
had backed up it was obvious to all that this poor engine needed
to be put out of its misery. White, who had been running 5.7s
all weekend, gave the fans a show running a solid 5.819 at 255.89
for the money. It was later learned that Harris' engine broke
an exhaust rocker arm.
"What made this loss particularly
tough was the fact we had a brand new set of rocker arms in the
trailer." said Jack Harris "The one that broke was
several years old and whole set was going to get changed out
over the winter."
Nonetheless, it was a good weekend
for the Nitro Thunder team and they are looking forward to the
2009 season when they will put on a full court press to win the
championship for themselves.
Eliminations
- Round One
5:03 p.m. Weather
conditions: air temperature 65 degrees, relative humidity 14
percent, barometer 29.90 inches, track temperature 84 degrees.
The other difference between the March Meet and CHRR is that
the first round of eliminations is run Saturday evening prior
to the Cacklefest program.
After the call for Top Fuel,
the crew rolled Big Red out of their pit and headed for the staging
lanes.
Harris' opponent for
the first round of eliminations was Brendan Murry.
This race was over early on when
Murry's car failed to respond off the starting line (1.264 60ft
number) and Harris left like a rocket.
As can be seen, Harris experienced
severe tire smoke early and had the throttle closed by half track.
Eliminations
- Round Two
11:51 a.m. Sunday:
Following the pre race ceremonies, the second round of Top Fuel
kicked off under another sunny sky.
Round two found Harris
facing Pete Kaiser in the potent Ground Zero car.
Coasting through the lights with
a 7.597 at only 125.90. This would leave them with just one more
run to make eliminations on Sunday.
Both cars backed up side
by side.
Both drivers left together but
Harris moved harder and gained an early lead.
