The latest update as of August 29, 2023
It's going to be one VERY busy week!
As you can see by the event headers above, there is going to be three races this week, with the grand-daddy of them all, the 69th annual DODGE Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals leading the way. That six day extravaganza of speed gets underway in less than 24 hours, starting at 8:00 AM (EDT) tomorrow. It concludes with final eliminations on Labor Day Monday, as it has for most of it's storied history. This year's edition has full fields in all 17 eliminator categories, with a total of 852 racers competing.
Sandwiched in the middle of that race at Clermont, IN is the conclusion of the Kearney Raceway FUNNY CAR CHAOS event that was rained out after qualifying concluded in early July. That will be accomplished during qualifying at this weekend's FCC event at (Smokin') Mo-Kan Dragway. It's going to be quite a doubleheader to remember, and will almost certainly determine who the contenders are in the race to the series championship. With just one event, at Baton Rouge in mid-September, remaining on the schedule, the pressure will be on all the top runners. The top eight cars in the standings will all be in attendance, and they all have points "in the bank" from qualifying at the Kearney event.
What is going to make this week and next extra busy at Northern Thunder is that we will have BIG Bob Snyder travelling to Asbury, MO to capture all the action from Mo-Kan Dragway. He flew to Maryland last weekend to shoot the FCC event at Budds Creek, MD, flew home on Sunday, then will turn around and make the 1239 mile (2000 km) drive from his southern Arizona base to the race. Thankfully, he'll have his partner and fellow photographer, Ginger, doing the driving while he rests up enroute.
Also making a bit of a trek to an event for this website is our Colorado correspondent, Dale Fackler, as he makes the 1100 mile drive to Indianapolis Raceway Park to provide us with photos from the NHRA U.S. Nationals. Yes, he's going to the "Big Go" for the first time ever, and we get to cover the most iconic drag racing event on the planet for the first time since the 2014 edition. We can hardly wait to see what comes through the email inbox over the next week from both of these top-notch photographers. Stay tuned for all the coverage from both - or actually three - events.