07 Nightfire #3

Rod Pearce really had his nitrous `63 Corvette flyin' at the Nightfire. In qualifying he delivered a huge 6.42. For the record, the partity in Pro Mod at the Nightfire was split straight down the middle, 4 nitrous, 4 blown cars qualified (out of 14) for the event.

Utah's Troy Deakin lost a nail biter in the 4-Day Point's Championship presented by Meridian Automotive & Machine. The defending Classic champ saw Larry Hale overtake his lead and win the overall crown by just 1 point.

Debuting a beautiful new paint scheme at the Pepsi Nightfire, Dan Horan charged to top speed of the race at 230.17, but lost a good race with the Pisano & Matsubara Vega, 6.37 to 6.43. Tip of the hat to Horan for airlifting a crankshaft in on Saturday just to compete after a nasty engine explosion on Friday night.

Check out Full Throttle News magazine in the near future, as they will do a full color feature of the Nightfire weekend. Rick Rodgers and Rick White pair up in this match, 6.34 to a 6.04 for White.

Talk about consistent. Top Fire low qualifier Quentin Chambers must have run between 7.00 and 7.02 - eight, yes, eight times during time trials and qualifying. He also nailed a best of 6.94 in the cool air for the event's Quickest Dragster.

The AAA Idaho Racer Appreciation Party went over like gang busters on Thursday night with all kind of prizes and goodies up for the taking from emcees Stevie Wong and Brad New.

2007 Bracketeer 4-Day champ Tracy Holt won Thursday, then went onto capture the coveted crown on Sunday by 3 rounds over Dustin Hentges.

Richard Smith and Derek Snelson put on a great fire show with their Jet Funny Cars. Smith ran 6.22-257.06 agasint a 6.27-252.24 the Alaskan driver in the final blast on Sunday night.

Attempting to secure his license, Craig Michael took a ride off into the wheat field when his chutes wouldn't deploy. In our book, this AA/Funny Car called "Vegas Heat" in one fabulous nostalgic piece.

Western States/CAT staged a special Semi Truck Challenge on Friday night.

Adam Sorokin was the heavy favorite going into the final on Sunday night after belting out a 5.85 in the semi's, but he got crossed up in the final against Howard Haight who would go onto win.

Scoring Sunday's $5,000 cash prize, Mark Kidd stopped former Classic Super Pro and Top Gun champ Paul Snell. Kidd won his second Bracketeer title at 7.63 (7.61 dial) to a .03-over 7.34-182.66 by the Utah racer.

PERSERVERANCE in all caps speaks volumes about the efforts of the Canadian Pro Mod team of Joe Delahay. He pulled off a miracle in just being able to make the Nightfire after expiring two engines at the previous West Coast Pro Mod stop. Hats off to the Delahay team and their efforts. They qualified second at 6.38-226 (top speed of meet) and lost in the semi's to Trevor Lowe.

Firebird Staff member Dennis Law and the rest of the Firebird team worked their tails (mops) off at this year's Nightfire. We think most agree, all of us are indebted to their efforts during this extra-long weekend of racing.