Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Final Results

SATURDAY HIGHLIGHTS: 39TH ANNUAL NAPA IGNITOR OPENER

Saturday at the NAPA Auto Parts Ignitor was the true test of patience. After Friday’s gorgeous weather, Saturday dawned just the opposite as rain started falling overnight and throughout the morning hours. In fact, by noon, we had recorded a whopping six tenth of an inch of precipitation. Most might have tossed the towel in, but not the team working this weekend’s Division 6 Opener. As most mentioned, the Firebird staff worked their tails off, throwing every piece of track dryer equipment at the racing surface. They ran their new Jet Express Track Dryer, the Power Boss Track Scrubber, the raceway tractor (with Sweepster broom and blower), and an assortment of hand blowers and multiple propane burners. Testimony to the effort, what would normally take 3 hours was whittled down to just over an hour and a half. It was a great effort by all involved.

With the morning time trial/qualifying session wiped out by the rain, eliminations got underway just before 3 pm. All categories finished their first round of eliminations and a handful of classes completed their second round when the showers returned around 8:30 pm under Firebird’s stadium lighting.

Thanks to Stinker Stores, the Nitro Knockout featured a trio of Top Fuel cars. By day’s end, Jim Murphy drove his WW2 to an early shutoff 5.83 at 223.49. Murphy acknowledged that he shut it off very early into the run after clipping a couple of pistons. His intermediate times revealed a 1.03 60’, 3.85 660’, and a speed topping 203 mph at the eighth. As the number one qualifier, he will be the favorite going into Sunday’s final eliminations. Mike McLennan was second after belting out a 6.08 and 6.06 at top speed of the meet – 244.43. Brett Harris was third after hurting his engine on the first run. After putting in a new bullet, Harris returned with similar difficulties, a real rarity in the Nitro Thunder camp, but vow to return with better numbers on Sunday. Murphy will get the bye, while Harris will take on McLennan.

Many of you are already familiar with where to go to find out all the latest results, but for those of you who may not, direct yourself to www.dragracecentral.com for a complete round by round update from Saturday’s day of racing.