PEPSI NIGHTFIRE—RACE FOR THE AGES!

Beautiful weather greeted a tremendous field of competitors for the 40th edition of the Pepsi Nightfire Nationals. Fans by the thousands were treated to one of the most spectacular races in Firebird history. Overhead by many in attendance, “this was hands down one of the best Nightfire events to date.” That certainly speaks volumes about the magnitude and significance of events like our Nightfire.

We’ve selected a vibrant cross-section of photos taken from this year’s Nightfire weekend. We have a library of virtually hundreds upon hundreds of great shots from a whole hose of photographers. Quite a number of these outstanding images (and many, many more) will find their way into future publications like our 2012 Motorsports Annual and Track Schedule brochure, not to mention a vast array of print publications in the coming months (like National Dragster, Drag Racer magazine and others).

Our appreciation goes out to everyone who supported the Nightfire weekend. Without question, it was one of the best to date. At the same time, we want to pass along special thanks to everyone on the Firebird track staff for all their hard work throughout the event. Each and member of our team works tirelessly from sun up to well past sundown each and every day (several that started at 6 am and didn’t quite until well past midnight over the course of 4 days `n nights in August). We’re indebted to their help and grateful for everything they do from the moment the gates swing open for parking early in the week until everything wraps up in the Pepsi Winner’s Circle on Sunday night.

As much as we’d like to publish a photo of each and every racer who attended this year’s event, that would be virtually impossible to accomplish. Hopefully you enjoy a small assortment of color and excitement from Nightfire 40. In an effort to showcase almost every eliminator or special award winner we made an attempt to post all the winner’s circle photos from the weekend. In case you weren’t aware—there were 45 different award recipients over the span of four days and nights-WOW!

If you had fun at this one, don’t miss the opportunity to participate at Halloween Classic XVIII on October 12-16 later this season.

All Nightfire Images are presented on behalf of David Fudge, Brian Losness, Rick Cate, Gary & Jessica Himes, Troy Cross and the Firebird staff. Under penalty of the law pertaining to photographic ownership rights and respective copyrights of each photo used on our website, you may not copy or use any photographic image displayed on firebirdonline.com. Should you like a print of one of the photos on this site, please contact the photographer in person (or email us for an address/phone number) to order images direct from the source.  In the near future, you’ll also be able to check out all the fantastic images from both: http://www.pbase.com/nitroimage#galerias (Blair Alderton) http://www.maxcacklephotos.com/ (Chris Graves/Tera Wendland).