The latest update as of March 9, 2024

With a reprieve from the weather gods, eliminations were completed on time on a very busy Sunday. Due to the intermittent rain on Saturday, all four rounds of Funny Car eliminations, plus the three rounds for Top Fuel and Fuel Altered were completed under mainly sunny skies. We haven't got a lot of photos to show, but the quality certainly makes up for the quantity.

One of the most iconic "A" boards in drag racing, the Famoso Dragstrip sign shows the 66th annual Good Vibrations March Meet is running in/near Bakersfield, California. A hallowed patch of ex-WWII airfield asphalt that still resonates with the sounds and smell of nitro several times each year.

TOP FUEL DRAGSTER ELIMINATIONS

(LEFT) In the opening round of eliminations, defending series champion, Tyler Hilton in the "Great Expectations III" smoked the tires early and fell to Tyler Hester. Hilton's 9-second run was far behind Hester's early shut-off (800') winning pass of 5.908 at only 194.86 mph.

(RIGHT) Next up were the two most closely matched qualifers, the #4 and #5 cars. Holding lane choice by only a hundredth of a second, Pete Wittenberg took out the challenger from Texas, Michael Anderson, as the Texan slowed to a mid 6-second clocking, while Wittenberg kept the hammer down all the way with a winning 5.720 - 250.13 pass. The e.t. was nearly a full tenth of a second quicker than his #4 qualifying pass in the "Circuit Breaker".

Starting eliminations from the #3 rung on the ladder, the Adam Sorokin driven "Champion Speed Shop" entry looked good as he pulled into the staging beams, but it all came undone quickly as he smoked the tires after leaving first by a full tenth over Bret Williamson. While Sorokin coasted to the finish line with a 10-second pass, Williamson easily advanced to the semifinals with a 5.875 -249.53 timeslip.

Opening the semifinal round without lane choice, Tyler Hester in the "Overtime Special", took out Pete Wittenberg in the closest race of the event. Heser left first by .038 and ran three thousandths quicker to take a less than a car length victory. The verdict read: Hester 5.725 - 261.67 (top speed of the meet), versus Wittenberg's very good 5.728 - 250.78 losing effort.

(LEFT) In the other semifinal pairing, Bret Williamson in the "Forever Young" entry was ready to take on a very tough opponent who had travelled a long way to contend for a March Meet victory. It was a close race of the line and Williamson was right there until he had a quick pedal near the 1000' mark, and could only muster a 6.077 - 245.00 in what became a losing effort.

(RIGHT) As the two cars staged for the right to face Tyler Hester in the final round, Bowen (accidentally?) whacked the throttle, but held in the beams long enough to make a green light start and kept the pedal all the way down to the finish line with a solid 5.978 - 249.49 clocking that took the winlight by nearly two car lengths. Even though he won the round, Hester's much quicker pass held lane choice for the final.

It was another strange starting line show for Shawn Bowen (far lane), as he pulled into full stage, whacking the throttle and bringing the revs way up before the ambers flashed. He was able to leave first by a few hundredths, but just past half track started heading for the centerline, forcing him to lift and cruise to the finish line with a 7.649 - 122.88 time. In the near lane, Tyler Hester kept the candles lit all the way enroute to another great pass, a 5.775 - 258.57 that turned on the final winlight of the event.

FUNNY CAR ELIMINATIONS

Qualifying whittled down the 23 entries to the "Quick 16" for Sunday's eliminations. With the surprise low qualifier, Shane Westerfield, sitting at the top of the ladder with a tremendous 5.613 - 258.57 effort, and Cameron Ferre on the bubble with a very respectable 5.924 - 244.83, it was shaping up to be a very exciting day of racing. Even the list of non-qualifiers included some quality teams and the quickest two alternateds in the 5-second zone.

(LEFT) Eliminations opened with a huge upset, as #16 qualifier Cameron Ferre blew away Shane Westerfield (not shown), nearly matching low e.t. of the meet, with an excellent 5.618 - 244.87 winning pass. The only dark shadow on the win was a huge cloud of "death" smoke at the finish line, meaning some serious thrashing was going to be required to turn the car around for the next round.

(RIGHT) After a couple of 7-second passes, the "Pro-Max" team, with young Drew Austin driving, jumped into the #13 spot in the last qualifying session, with a solid 5.753 - 245.00 pass. He backed that up with a winning 5.745 - 232.91 over Derrick Moreira (not shown), to advance to the quarter-final round.

In the second round, Jon Capps kept the beat going with a win over Geoff Monise (not shown), as he covered the "Quarter Pounder"'s early shutoff 6-second pass, with a great 5.803 - 253.04 to advance to the semifinals for the first time.... ever?

(LEFT) Next up was Funny Car veteran Jeff Arend, driving the "Nitro Nick" '78 Firebird of Matt Bynum. He had a very tough ask in this round, facing five-time defending series champion Bobby Cottrell (not shown), but when Cottrell's 'chute came out on the launch, it was all over. Arend pounded out a great 5.713 - 246.30 to advance to the semi=finals.

(RIGHT) Joining him in the next round was Cory Lee, in Gary Turner's "Pedaler", as he dispatched another Northwest "hitter", Drew Austin (not shown), with a very quick 5.683 at a booming top speed of the meet 260.36 mph. That was more than enough to give him lane choice in the semi-finals.

The semis saw two runaway wins, with Jeff Arend (not shown), advancing with a 19-second pass over a broken (on the burnout), Jon Capps, while Cory Lee won over Cameron Ferre with another very quick and fast pass, a 5.714 - 259.01 over a slowing Cameron Ferre in the "Johnny On Thin Ice" '70 Trans-Am. Lee's run gave him lane choice in the final by a very wide margin.

The final round matched two very experienced "Big Show" fuel funny car drivers, with Cory Lee coming out on top with his quickest run of the event, a 5.658, with another big speed at 260.01 to show that they had the car absolutely dialed in. Even though Lee left second, by just a hundredth of a second, he finished several car lengths in front of his very worthy opponent, Jeff Arend, who trailed through the traps with a slowing 5.829 - 236.92 set of times.

FUEL ALTERED - Eliminations

After three rounds of qualifying, the ten entrants were whittled down to eight, but when the "Sheepherder, being driven by Cory Lee, reported in as broken, the first alternate, and very long-time fuel racing veteran, Rodney Flournoy, was inserted into the field. He didn't last long though, as in the opening pair of eliminations he was blown away by #1 qualifier, Matt Leonard, 6.018 - 233.80 to a losing 16.483 - 65.70.

The "Cone Hunter" of New Mexico's Lyle Greenberg (near lane) found a little luck when Johnny West (far lane), got out of shape at 900', and center-punched the 1000' timing block. The automatic win for Greenberg made his 6.446 - 157.93 the winning time, while West pushed the foam block across the finish line and stopped the clocks at a quicker 6.257 - 206.07 in a losing effort.

(LEFT) Launching hard and running strong all the way to the finish line, Mark Whynaught stopped the timers at 5.970 - 217.35, but it was a shade too quick against Ron Capps's (not shown) safe 6.402 - 221.45 pass.

(RIGHT) In the final pairing of the round, the ultra evil-looking "Witch Doctor" '39 Fiat Toplino of Keith Wilson powered to an easy win with a solid 6.163 - 179.83 (off the throttle VERY early) over the "Pure Hell" '32 Bantam in the far lane.

Driving that recreation of an early 60's Awful/Awful was Tennessee's Brian Hope. As you can see, he got well out of shape on the burnout, showing true fuel altered style, then launched with what appears to be at least one cylinder misfiring, before limping to a 7.240 - 139.78 time.

(LEFT) In the semifinal round, Lyle Greenberg picked up the pace a little with a 6.328 - 200.74 to easily defeat Ron Capps, (not shown), who could only muster an early shutoff 7.246 - 133.16 in the "Burkholder Bros." '37 Topolino.

(RIGHT) With the sun set, and the lights on, the final round featured Keith Wilson (not shown), against Lyle Greenberg. After flirting with the 6.00-index in the first two rounds, with 6.163 and 6.062 e.t.'s, Wilson let it all hang out in the final with an insanely quick 5.777, at "only" 225.15 mph, to break out by a BUNCH. The recipient of the gift win was Greenberg, who bogged off the line and coasted to a 14-second timeslip. The slow roll down the track gave him a great view of Wilson giving away a certain victory with a way-too-fast pass. As the cliche reads: sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

Two views of the winner: the car sitting in the winner's circle, waiting for the crew to show up (left) and on the right, the entire crew, with Lyle Greenberg holding the big trophy and crew chief Jake Sanders to his left. A well deserved win for a hard working team.