The NAPA Auto Parts Ignitor is rich with history and tradition. For 38 years, the Firebird Season Opener has been a fixture in western Idaho and has become the oldest major event in the Pacific Northwest. Looking back in time, the first Ignitor in 1971 was won by none other than Don "the Snake" Prudhomme and his Mattel Hot Wheels Cuda. At the time, the victory for Prudhomme in Boise was his sixth in a row, downing Jerry Ruth, Kenney Goodell and Charlie Allen in the AA/Funny Car match. The winning time for "the Snake" was 7.42-197.73. Other champions in `71 included Bob Lambeck, Lloyd Taylor, Ralph VanPaepeghem, Keith Grondahl, Jeff Parker, Ron Jones and Boyd Gatfield.

 

This year's race was one of the quickest and fastest on record. Evidenced by the 31 new NHRA National Records and one Professional mark, both the cool weather and impressive track surface yielded outstanding performances across the board. Amongst a fleet of new national records, those that real stand-out include the runs by Hal Sorenson, Robert Pond, Bob Marshall, and Rob Harrision. All four of these racers really delivered some outstanding runs. Sorensen recorded one of the quickest runs in A/Stock Automatic - PERIOD! Refactored, the Sorensen Bros. Camaro ran 9.79! In AA/S, Robert Pond ripped off a mind-numbing 9.76 with his famous white Fairlane. In Comp, Marshall and Harrison cranked out some beauties. Marshall ripped off a refactored 6.98 to become the first member of the B/AA 6-second club. And then there was Harrision who blitzed the clocks with a 7.86 and 7.84 (at altitude) to nail the J/A national mark and qualify #1 with an .844 under his index.

 

All together, 404 racers attended the event from as far away as South Dakota and Indiana. Jack Harris stunned the crowd with a new track e.t. record of 5.69 during qualifying with the "Nitro Thunder" Fuel Dragster that won the March Meet at Bakersfield. On Sunday he returned to win the overall title, laying down a 5.79 - 249 mph run to defeat Howard Haight. Impressively, Matt Moreira won his second straight Ignitor title, belting out back-to-back 6.172 e.t.'s to stop Dale Harsin. Another outstanding run was recorded during Sportsman eliminations. Former Pepsi Nightfire champion Dustin Hentges put together a very rare "perfect" package during the third round of Top Dragster racing. Racing against Steve Casner, Hentges hit a .000 reaction time and coupled it with a 7.430 on a 7.43 dial to become only the fifth racer in Firebird's 41 year history to record what is known as a perfect run. Nice job - Dustin!

 

All-in-all, the weekend was spectacular from the very quick performances to the near post-card perfect weather. Thanks to all the racers, crews, families and sponsors for supporting this year's season opener. We look forward to seeing everyone again on down the road.

Special thanks goes out to ace photographer Chris Wold for supplying many of the photos within this Ignitor collage. Should you have interest in capturing any of these or others that he took on Saturday or Sunday, please give him a shout at 208 703-1734 or check out his website at http://www.spooledproductions.com/Pictures/Ignitor%20Set%201/index.html - http://www.spooledproductions.com/Pictures/Ignitor%20Set%202/index.html . 
He definitely nailed some sweet shots at this year's Ignitor!