Hot Rod Heritage FC Touchdown at Mission
A line-up of 29 Funny Cars invaded Mission Raceway last weekend.
When Mission Raceway Park landed an NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series designation for its annual Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car event, run as part of the NHRA Lucas Oil National Open and sponsored by Jet Equipment, it was thought that there might finally be enough cars to fill a 16-car field, so that is what the field was to be. Instead, only eight cars were entered, fewer than previous years before it was an NHRA Heritage event, but they were probably just about the top eight cars in the West, and they put on quite a show under perfect cloudless skies all weekend.
Joining them were the Nostalgia Alcohol Funny Cars of both the Rocky Mountain Funny Car Association from Alberta and the NWBBFC group from the U.S., and as always, the hope was that the grand total would be the traditional 32 Funny Cars like the old days, but like past years, the entry came up just a tad short, this year with 29 cars. Still, that many floppers had the joint rocking, starting with an autograph session, the traditional display on the track, and qualifying under the lights on Saturday night.
Canada’s Tim Boychuk and Tim Nemeth were event top attractions.
Entering the race, a lot of the chatter had to do with local racer Tim Nemeth, who had run 5.63 in testing at Mission, and two 5.75s in Edmonton. But on Friday in testing, he launched the “good” blower and damaged the valve train in his Firebird, to say nothing of much body damage. He was nowhere near those numbers thereafter, failing to find the “fives” in qualifying.
Runs in the 5.70s were not uncommon in the two qualifying rounds, with Jason Rupert running two of them, 5.73 and 5.75, joined by Cameron Ferre (5.73) in Twig Ziegler’s car, Mark Sanders (5.79), and Kris Krabill in Bucky Austin’s new Firebird (5.76 at top speed of the meet, 254.95 mph). In the low-5.80 range were Tim Boychuk and Dan Horan, so first round on Sunday figured to be tough to predict, especially if Nemeth could solve his problems.
But he didn’t, running only a 6.09 to lose narrowly to Ferre. Rupert got the break of the event, his only “off” run, when he shook and shut off on a single, with Mark Hentges having broken and gone home Friday night. Sanders shook and shut off, too, handing the win to Horan, while the best race of Round One saw Krabill defeat Edmonton’s Tim Boychuk, 5.82-5.83, and suddenly, there were no Canadians left.
Round two started with a bummer, as Ferre oiled the track on his burnout, necessitating a 40-minute clean-up, and handing the 5.85 win to Krabill. The two other Californians, Rupert and Horan, hooked up in the quickest side-by-side race of the day, in the 28-degree heat of mid-afternoon, Rupert’s black Camaro prevailing with a Low ET 5.71 / 253 to the old Mustang’s close 5.79 / 253. A great race!
So, with Rupert’s slowest run (5.75) being quicker than Krabill’s best (5.76 in the cool Saturday night air), the favourite was definitely Rupert in the final, and he didn’t disappoint, running another good 5.78 / 250 with burnt pistons to win, while Krabill got out of the groove to the left and kept his foot in it, eventually crossing the centre line and making a good save. Rupert’s score was four 5.70s in four complete runs, so he definitely earned the victory.
Jason Rupert (far lane) defeated Kris Krabill in the Nostaliga Nitro FC final round
The Rocky Mountain racers put on their usual good show, with some 11 cars showing up. Not amongst them were perennial favourites, the Sekura Brothers, but there are several new cars this year, which is a good sign for this style of racing.
Running off a 6.80 index, it was David Brant’s day in the Reaper Firebird. He ran only a 7.02 in qualifying 7th, and the same in Round One, which should have been enough to see him lose opposite Norm Kolwich’s 6.82, but it came with a .344 light, so it wasn’t all that close at the stripe. Brant finally found the combination, running a 6.82 himself for the win in the semis, and followed with a 6.86 in the final, which was academic when Landon Goudreau left before the tree was activated.
Alberta’s David Brant drove his fan favorite “Reaper” to the indexed Rocky Mountain FC title
So, despite the slight disappointment with the number of Nitro cars entered, overall, the Funny Car show at Mission was an entertaining one, with lots of close racing, little downtime, and great weather, and it was the best feature event of the year here.
Posting and Photos by: Gerry Frechette
