Eliminations officially got under way at 11:30 a.m. with several award ceremonies. Above Mike English introduces Tom McEwen, Tony Waters, Don Prudhomme, Don Hampton and Art Chrisman.

 

Grand Marshall's Tom McEwen and Don Prudhomme along with the winner of the 1st March Meet, Art Chrisman.

 

The stands were full of fans looking forward to a great day of racing.

 

 

 

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Eliminations - Round One
Right on time, after the playing of our National Anthem, the first pair of Top Fuel cars fired up at high noon.

 

Any driver will tell you that round one is the toughest of all and and when the butterflies are prevalent. In the other lane was #14 qualifier Rick McGee.

Lauren Tyrell backs Jack up from his burnout.

 

 

Behind the line the crew makes final checks and adjustments.

 

 

Jack left first by .010 and never looked back.

Going into the traps the engine ate a couple of pistons but it was worth it to clock another 5.793 at a faster 248.96 for the win.

With a tough first round under their belt, the crew heads down to pick up Jack.

To win the meet the crew had to go three more rounds and that meant the pit was a busy place after every run.

 

Eliminations - Round Two
2:22 p.m. Sunday: Still under sunny skies and ideal track conditions round two hit the track.

After making a change in compression and putting on 12" wheels with year old tires, Harris does his burnout for his race with Mike McClennan.

Engine sounding stout, tires getting wiped off... history was less than a minute away.

 

Meanwhile, McClennan had engine trouble after his burnout and shut off. Harris would have a single run to move into the semi-finals.

Don Tyrrell turns on the data computer as Jack moves into the staging lights.

The scoreboard tells the tale - by a ton the quickest pass in front engine top fuel history! Once it registered, the announcers, fans, racers and of course the crew went wild. Prior to this the quickest time ever was a 5.63 by Brad Thompson on an exhibition pass at the 2008 NHRA Winternationals. Harris' previous best was a 5.72 over two years ago. Obviously the 5.56 was the first leg of a new national record.

The incremental times:
60ft (1.015), 330 ft (2.573), 660ft (3.751 at 213.16), 1,000ft (4.734).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eliminations - Semi Finals
5:19 p.m Saturday afternoon: And then there were four.

 

 

Pitted against a tough customer by the name of Denver Schutz, Harris chose to be the first pair and stay in his favored left lane.

 

 

 

Harris moves into the staging beams for another date with history.

 

Even though he had run back to back 5.7 passes in eliminations, Schutz was still two tenths slower than Harris. A good leaver, Denver took a shot at the lights and caught a beauty... his 0.002 RT gave him a tenth in the bank off the line.

 

 

Harris just did his normal thing and so did the car...

 

 

Schutz's early lead was short lived as Harris' 1.001 60' time combined with tire spin on the white car put Big Red in front by the 60 foot clocks.

 

 

 

 

Harris shut off at the 1100' mark.

 

 

Once again a picture is worth a thousand words. A 5.578 at 249.51 backs up Harris' earlier 5.568 for a new AAFD ET World Record. Jack jumped right over the 5.6s for back-to-back 5.5s - the most impressive performance in the history of the class - maybe the whole sport.

 

Top Fuel Final

In spite of the start of Daylight Savings Time, the sun had set by the time the two quickest cars in the world rolled out for what promised to be one hell of a drag race. Doing a lot of engine damage, Brad Thompson had clocked an excellent 5.692 at 240.25 in the semis but that was still over a tenth off of Harris' 5.57. Thompson and crew has a lot of repair work to do and almost didn't make the call for the last race of the weekend. However, no matter how good the Famoso track is during the day, when the sun goes down it has a habit of going away - in a hurry. Such was the case here.

 

 

Finishing their turn around long before Thompson, the Nitro Thunder crew waits in the staging lanes hoping they would not have to make a single for the win.

 

Lauren Tyrrell and Cami Beck were all smiles and full of confidence.

 

Billy Robins and Jack Harris - a great team together again.

 

The two quickest and fastest drives in NTF - Jack Harris and Brad Thompson. Both drivers knew they were going for the throat and had the cars loaded for bear. They also knew the history of racing under the lights at Bakersfield. So, the only question was - would the track hold their tune-ups.

 

 

 

 

Rolling onto the track it was showtime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thompson got a lead at the hit but Harris was right there in a hurry.

 

 

 

The was a great drag race for about 40 feet' when Thompson started to lose traction.

 

 

Harris was still good when Brad had really boiled the tires. He tried to recover but no go.

 

 

Before half track Harris had traction problems of his own. Not knowing where Thompson was, Jack did a nice pedal job getting the car to the lights with a 6.064 at 239.36. Not pretty by any means but much better than Brad's 13.303 at 61.79.

 

 

The teams calls Cami Beck their good luck charm. I'd say she did good this day... and she got to steer Big Red to the Winners Circle.

 

The Harris/Parks teams make for a big crowd.

 

 

 

John Hasham gives Jack the 2008. Ernie Hasham Memorial Award

 

A worn out Blake Bowser (far right) can hardly manage a smile. It was a very long weekend for Blake, father John and their Famoso crew.

 

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Page One: March Meet Qualifying Rounds

More at  All American Fuel Dragsters