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The latest update as of September 18, 2018

Funny Car Chaos: from Northstar Dragway (Denton, Texas)

Photos courtesy of Bob Snyder Drag Photos

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Before the weather closed in and wiped out Friday's on-track action, our photographer, the intrepid "Big" Bob Snyder had time to take a few shots of the cars as they arrived at Northstar Dragway. On the (LEFT) is the "Smokey the Bear" entry of Waco, Texas' Robert Slaughter while on the (RIGHT) is Albuquerque's Lyle Greenberg in his beautiful "Cone Hunter" Corvette. Unfortunately, the pits was as far as Greenberg got as the engine locked up (presumably due to an oil system problem) on a warmup before qualifying began

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The last pit picture before the skies caved in shows North Carolina's Brian Cunningham on the (LEFT) with his gorgeous ex-Peter Gallen ("Poverty Stricken") "Gone Ballistic" Monza. That was all Mother Nature wrote for the day as heavy rain and high winds wiped out any possibility of Friday qualifying, forcing the event into a one-shot, one-day deal.

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With the sun out and the track dry on Saturday afternoon, the first - and only - round of qualifying got under way with Wichita's Daniel Butherus in the "Rat-A-Tude" entry trying to scare the photographers as he took aim at the left guardwall on the launch (LEFT), and Nebraska's Matt Nissen backed up after his burnout (RIGHT). Butherus failed to make the "A" field, carding only a 5.72 - 120 (good for #9 on the "B" side), while Nissen ran a little harder at 4.75 - 122 mph for the #5 spot in the "B" field.

One of, if not the, toughest car on the Funny Car Chaos circuit is Reno, Nevada's "Little City 'Cuda" of Chris Morel. He set the pace in qualifying with a very strong 3.865 at 204.45 mph

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The "Wicked Quick" '55 Chevy of North Dakota's Jim Chase showed some serious horsepower, nearly breaking into the 3-second zone, with a 4.03 - 182 mph for the #3 spot on the "A" side

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Varying results for this pair, as (LEFT) Arkansas' Rick Krafft in the "Invader" Corvette laid down a troubled 11.61 - 43 mph to slide into the "B' side in the #12 spot, while on the (RIGHT), Nick Poloson pounded out a much stronger 4.108 - 180 in the "Bucket List" to take the #7 spot in the "A" main

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Two good passes put Nick Johnson in the "Prairie Fire" (LEFT) into the #7 spot on the "B" side (4.86 - 141), while Andy Mears in the "Dragon Slayer" (RIGHT) ran a little harder, landing in the #2 slot at 4.54 - 141 mph

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(LEFT) Launching hard with the wheels up, Jordan Ballew in his "Ballew Thunder" Nova grabbed the #4 spot in the "B" field with a 4.59 - 151, while on the (RIGHT) we saw NHRA Top Fuel racer (among many other driving gigs) Kebin Kinsley in the "Wild Child" Mustang take the fifth spot on the "A" side with a very good 4.06 - 187 clocking

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(LEFT) Making his one-shot qualifier count, New Mexico's Ray Stringer in his "Blown Cent-Less" entry, squeezed into the "A" field in the #8 slot, with a 4.33 - 170 pass, while (RIGHT) Ken Singleton in the "High Risk" car continued his streak of strong performances with a #2 qualifying 3.88 at 196 mph

Mike Newkirk in the "Girl Watcher" entry (LEFT) came down from Kansas and made his mark on the show with a #6 qualifying ("A" field) effort at 4.102 - 166. (MIDDLE) Not sure if the back-up boy lost his shoes in the glue, but it's definitely not the correct footwear for the track. (RIGHT) The "Hombre" Vega of Mike Buchanan made a very troubled qualifying run, limping across the finish line (just barely!) in 20.78 at 10 mph

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On the (LEFT), it's Dave Gallegos in the flat black "Nitro Clown" Camaro looking plenty tough but falling to breakage and not qualifying. Having much better luck (RIGHT) was the Addison, Texas Camaro of former big show flopper pilot John Hale as he took the "One Bad Texan" all the way to the final round of the "A" field after qualifying fourth with a great 4.04 - 193 pass

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(LEFT) Lighting up the scoreboards BIG time, Allan Middendorf put down the quickest e.t. of qualifying, but his awesome Jake 'The Snake' Sanders tuned "American Outlaw" entry hit the wall before the finish line and the run was disallowed, putting him at the bottom of the "B" field. (RIGHT) The cool looking (note the old school Hilborn "Shotgun" injector), "Shazam" Corvette of Larry Eoff broke on his qualifier and didn't make it to the first round

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On the (LEFT) side it's the Jackson family's "High Heaven" entry, wheeled by Keith Jackson, enroute to a 4.76 - 169 qualifying run, good enough for #6 in the "B" field. (RIGHT) It's a slick-looking new car for Missouri's John Umlauf that broke on this pass and failed to make it into eliminations

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(LEFT) The truly vintage looking mid-70s UNsupercharged Mustang flopper "Pop-Bang-Boom" of New Mexico's Steve Northrop landed in the #11 spot on the "B" side with a mediocre 7.17 at 94 mph. On the (RIGHT), we've got the match race between Ray Kelley's jet dragster ("Game X-Change") (far lane) and the turbocharged diesel dragster of John Robinson (near lane)

And that was it for qualifying, with eliminations scheduled to start at 6:30 pm. With six broken cars, 15 cars in the "B" field and the top eight runners in the "A" field, three rounds of racing were on tap under the lights. The 8-car "A" group ran under a standard elimination format with three rounds of competition, while the "B" side had seven pairs and one bye in the first round, but only the four quickest winners from that round advanced to the semi-finals. Then the two winners from that round faced off in the "B" final.

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Eliminations started with the "A" field, and Ray Stringer (Blown Cent-Less) (LEFT) fell by the wayside quickly, running a solid 4.36 at 168 that was unforunately no match for John Hale's ("One Bad Texan") that broke into the 3's with a very strong 3.96 - 195 mph flashing up on the scoreboard. On the (RIGHT) Kebin Kinsley ("Wild Child") similarly fell to Chris Morel who dropped an absolute bomb on the field with the best run of the night, a 3.75 coupled with a huge speed of 208 mph

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(LEFT) Looking very cool under the lights, the early Chevy ("Wicked Quick") of Bismarck's Jim Chase burned out before facing (RIGHT) the ("Bucket List") of Nick Poloson (far lane). Both racers cut good lights, but Chase faded early to an 8.55 clocking at only 50 mph, which sank without a trace under the barrage of Poloson's much stronger 4.60 - 154

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(LEFT) The first round of the "A" field finished with the beatuiful "High Risk" of Oklahoma's Ken Singleton (near lane) keeping up the pace as he blasted out a 3.90 - 196 to dispose of Mike Newkirk's (far lane) valiant, but losing, effort of 4.14 at 174 mph. (RIGHT) The first race of the "B" show saw Mark Billington take his "Sons of Thunder" entry on a bye run to a 4.89 - 94 mph (early shut off) that unfortunately wasn't quick enough to make the semi-final round

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Keith Jackson (LEFT) got a freebie in the first round as his opponent, Mike Buchanan couldn't engage reverse after his burnout, and Jackson made the most of his free ride with the quickest run of the night for the "B" field, a very good 4.13 at 178 mph that garnered him a spot, and lane choice, in the semi-final. (RIGHT) After a mediocre qualifying pass, Rick Krafft in the "Invader" 'Vette, also got a free pass down the 660 as his opponent Matt NIssen shut off after the burnout, but Krafft failed to take advantage as his 5.99 at 74 mph wasn't nearly good enough to advance to the next round

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(LEFT) The "Pop-Bang-Boom" entry of Steve Northrop likewise failed to advance as he redlighted, then coasted to a 7.79 at 74 mph as he headed back to New Mexico in the slow lane. On the (RIGHT), Nancy Matter (near lane) in the "Guardian for Heroes" Firebird, took out the "American Dream" 'Cuda (far lane) of San Antonio's Larry Bradford by a 5.28 - 134 to 5.99 - 91 margin. A good effort for the Dale Pulde tuned Matter but not nearly enough to advance to the semi-finals

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A very familiar looking car (LEFT) showed up with a new name and owner/driver as "(Formerly) Fearless" Fred Farndon came in with his recently purchased ex-Shawn Bowen "Violator" and encountered nothing but trouble in the heavy hitting car. He took out the timing cones on his qualifying pass, then crawled down the track (11.74 at 42 mph) in his first round loss. On the (RIGHT), it's Daniel Butherus in the "Rat-A-Tude" starting his burnout prior to a first round loss to Andy Mears, running 4.83 - 153 to Mears' 4.60 - 150

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Here's two shots of the "quickest" (3.724 e.t. DQ'd due to boundary infraction) car on the grounds burning out, then launching with the flames over the roof - something you DO NOT see in NHRA Nostalgia FC racing - in his first round race. Unfortunately for the "Amercian Outlaw" team of Allan Middendorf, he was timed out while staging, and lost the race despite a 5.17 pass, while his opponent (Jeff Cameron) left the line with a "sleepy" .722 light and no time recorded in a truly weird final race of the first round of the "B" field

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After clocking low e.t. and top speed of the meet in the previous round, Chris Morel in his gorgeous "Little City 'Cuda" fell to the "One Bad Texan" Camaro of John Hale (far lane), by a wide margin: 3.97 - 192 for the Texan to Morel's tractionless, shutting off 8.61 - 54 mph pass

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(LEFT) The "Bucket List" car of Nick Poloson fell in the semi-finals to eventual "A" field winner Ken Singleton, despite clocking a very strong 4.04 - 195. Poloson redlighted, then was outrun to the finish line by Singleton's even stronger 3.90 - 195 mph clocking. (RIGHT) In one of the "B" field's semi-finals, Keith Jackson (far lane) laid down a solid 4.21 - 176 to take out the "Ballew Thunder" entry of Jordan Bellew which fell short with a 4.74 at 146 mph

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On the (LEFT) side, it's Nick Johnson's beautiful "Prairie Fire" leaving late (.220 light) and falling behind the (almost out of the frame) "Dragon Slayer" Chevy of the "B" field runner-up, Andy Mears. Besides cutting an almost perfect (.004) light, Mears outran Johnson by a 4.55 - 152 to a 4.943 - 141 mph count. On the (RIGHT), we've got the "B" field final, with Colorado's Keith Jackson in the family's iconic "High Heaven" (near lane) entry pounding out a convincing win with a 4.18 - 177 pass to Mears' valiant, but losing, 4.52 at 153 mph pass

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After the Game X-Change jet dragster of Ray Kelley did his pyrotechnic thing (LEFT), the final pair of the night (actually, MORNING as it was past 1:00 AM by this point), lined up for the A Event Final, and Ken Singleton (near lane) in his "High Risk" blown alky Monte Carlo took the measure of the "One Bad Texan" nitro-powered Camaro of John Hale by an ultra-thin margin: 3.93 - 195 to a very close 3.94 at 193 mph

And just like that, the 2018 Funny Car Chaos season reached the finish line. With seven or possibly eight races on the agenda for 2019, the Chaos brand is rapidly moving to the forefront of non-Big Show Funny Car racing with it's appealing combination of minimal rules, maximum entertainment, and a racer and fan-friendly atmosphere. Somehow, some way, we've got to see one of these events in person next year, instead of experiencing it vicariously through the internet.