August 04-16-2009
- Boise, ID - The
38th edition of Firebird Raceway's signature event was a weekend
of way below normal temperatures, huge crowds, record runs, major
upsets and lots of drama. The Nightfire Nationals are Idaho's
premiere motorsport's national championship, and the 2009 edition
was even bigger and better than any year previous. Headlining
the 4 day show was Top Fuel Dragsters and Nostalgia Nitro Funny
Cars. In spite of a grim economy, there were 32 nitro cars on
the grounds and both the Friday and Sunday crowds were bigger
than years past. Most credit the absence of the normally hot
weather for much of the increase.
For Brett Harris
and the Nitro Thunder team it was a race that literally got away
due to breakage. Paired with Rick White in the semi-finals, Harris
partook in one of the most bizarre races in memory that will
be detailed in photos below. Suffice it to say he had the race
won hands down when the rearend gave out pushing the pinion gear
out of the housing ending their weekend early.
Said Harris,
"Of course we are disappointed but that's racing. We rearend
gears weren't that old and that was the last thing I expected
to break. We'll go home, regroup, change the rearend housing
and make sure it doesn't happen again next time out."
Photos
and full results below.
With the first
qualifying session not scheduled until 7:00 p.m. after getting
set-up, Friday was pretty low key. Around noon the tech crew
came by to cert the car to race.
Qualifying
- Session One
In years past,
there were three pro qualifying sessions but in an attempt to
give their largest crowd (Saturday) a better show and have first
round of eliminations under the lights they dropped one session..
So, it was important to get a baseline tune-up on the first shot.
Boise has a unique
staging lane in that it is right in front of the pits side stands
and elevated above the race track. This allows the fans to see
the cars and drivers up close and personal and lets the teams
see how track conditions are playing out.
At 7:30 the drivers were
told to suit up.
Greg Layton hooked up
Brett's neck protecting Hans device.
Harris heated up the tires with
one of his patented long and smoky burnouts. In the other lane
was Mark Malde.
Brett's daughter Carissa
backs dad up from his burnout.
Final adjustments before
staging.
The car was aggressive at the
hit and clocked good early numbers. Malde left hard as well.
By the 330' mark Harris was steadily
pulling away which was a good thing as Malde got out of the groove
and started coming toward the center line.
At this point Malde had crossed
the center line, taken out the 660' timing blocks and got off
the throttle.
On 3 wheels, Malde reeled it
in while Harris motored straight and true to the traps.
Malde reeled it in as Harris
stopped the clocks with a stunning 5.81 at 251.62 putting him
#1 for a while.
Knowing they were solidly
in the show, the team was pumped.
The guys worked into the night
getting the car serviced and ready for session two Saturday afternoon.
Qualifying -
Session Two - Saturday
After severe tire shake Brett
opted to click it as he know at that point it was not going to
run a big number.
Note Brett's correction
to the right.
Harris clicked it at
the 660' clocks and coasted to a 7.00 at just 134.83.
Sunday
- Round Three
For the semis Harris would have
to get by low qualifier Rick White who had lane choice They knew
they had to lay down a great number to get to the finals..
Everything was checked
and serviced or replaced... except the rearend.
Jack & Brett - two
of the best in the business.
Neal & White were
doing their maintenance right across the aisle.
At 7:30 the cars were
in the lanes as the sun was getting lower in the sky.
Papa Brett will have
his hands full when this one starts dating.
Time to roll.
Brett's burnout was a little
shorter than normal but there was no indication of any problems.
White did his burnout
first so he was back to the line before Harris.
Now, as stated in the opening
this is the start of one of the more bizarre Top Fuel races ever
seen. Now you must pay attention and yes, there will be a test.
Notice that Harris' staging lights are off while White's are
still on.
Harris nailed the tree
with a .042 light and launched like a rocket.
Note the staging lights
in the right lane are still on and the light is green.
Harris clocked a stout
1.01 60' time - the quickest ever for this car.
Harris had a great 60'
time and appeared to be on a winning run - until....
At about the 100' mark the car
made a horrible "squealing" noise, the engine zinged
to 11,500 rpm and immediately stopped accelerating. Harris shut
the butterflies to do an instant assessment of what had just
happened.
Now, Harris is dead in the water
and White is still sitting on the starting line with his crew
wondering what the hell is going on.
Brett hit the throttle and the
engine came up but the car didn't respond.
He hit the throttle a second
time and that was when he was sure it was driveline failure.
Meanwhile, White is STILL sitting on the starting line exactly
where he was staged 2 seconds earlier when Harris left.
All Harris could do was shut
down the engine and hope White was dead in the water as well.
Note that Harris is now past
the 330' blocks and can only here White idling in the background.
3.038 (an eternity in drag racing)
seconds after Brett left he heard the roar of White's engine
coming at him.
At this point Harris
had coasted past half track and White still hadn't passed him.
Finally at about 700'
the blue car zipped by on its way to a sub-par 6.66 at 238.22.
A dejected Harris climbed out
of his dead mount and would later say that he had never seen
anything like that. He added that it was a very helpless feeling
to finally hear White and know that at some point he would catch
him.
When asked what happened all
the normally good leaving White could say was that he just wasn't
there - gone to the Bahamas. You can bet that won't happen again.
Here is the culprit - a high
dollar billet pinion gear assembly that literally came out of
the housing chewing up the gears in the process. The studs broke
on the plate that holds the pinion and its bearing in the rearend
housing. They figure studs were hurt by tire shake on the previous
run.
Jack Harris is already making
equipment changes to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Nitro Thunder Funny Car at Boise
