Top Alcohol Dragster UPDATE

Before we get into the final Hot Rod Heritage Series event of the season, the California Hot Rod Reunion, we've got an update to yesterday's note about entries in the Top Alcohol Dragster class for this week's Ford Performance NHRA Nationals. The field has now grown to 26 entries, as Aaron Olivarez snuck in before the deadline. It will be his first appearance in nearly a decade, presumably with Jim Rizzoli tuning the injected nitro entry. Of the 25 cars on the list, a full one third of them, nine out of 26 are of the supercharged alcohol variety, showing that the blown combination is far from dead despite the preponderance of injected nitro cars in the class.

The 26-car field is the largest in Las Vegas history and ties for the largest of the past six years with the 2018 U.S. Nationals. The only larger field, with 27 entries was at Dallas in 2017 and 30 in 2016. And you have to go all the way back to 2008 to find a larger field, 32 cars in fact, at Chicago's Route 66 Raceway. Taking it one step further by a "number nerd" like myself, the largest entry lists in NHRA history - to as far back as I can reach (1998) - shows 36 entries at the second Chicago race in 2002, and 35 at the 1998 U.S. Nationals.

California Hot Rod Reunion - Famoso Dragway - Bakersfield, CA

The major championship battle was the four-way fight for the Nitro Funny Car crown. Points leader Nathan Sitko (Edmonton, AB Canada) was just ahead of defending series champion Bobby Cottrell, while Geoff Monise and Shane Westerfield were close enough to snatch the title. Despite qualifying #3, and leaving first by nearly half a tenth, Sitko smoked the tires and lost in the first round of eliminations. The #2 qualifier, Westerfield got left on, then smoked the tires and also lost in the opening stanza.

That opened the door for Cottrell and Monise to catch Sitko and they all advanced to the second round with strong runs. Monise was the quickest at 5.601 - 258.02, while Cottrell trailed in the e.t. department with a pretty good 5.700 - 256.26Z winning pass. In the second round Jeff Arend ran 5.582 - 262.00, which stood up as quickest and fastest of eliminations. That gave Arend lane choice over Monise in the semifinal, while Cottrell didn't have his choice against Mike Peck Sr..