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NHRA Northwest Nationals
Seattle International Raceway - Kent, WA
July 27 - 29, 2001
FRIDAY PICTURES
Click on the thumbnails to view full-size
We start our tour of the alcohol pits with the first installment of "A
(Lost) Weekend At Bernie's" as they try to assemble an unfinished car in the
pits. Did they make it? Stay tuned and see....
Pitted next door to Bernie is Mike Cofini, with his seldom-seen car from
Spokane. It's looking rather dated with the small front wheels and the rootes
blower, but there's only 16 cars in the pits, so he's got a good chance to
at least qualify.
One spot up from Cofini, is the Northwest Drag Racing School car of Canadian
Leo Grocock. While the other crews were busy thrashing, these late risers
were just getting their canopy up.
A little further up the road is the Edgecome Racing group (Paul Jones driving)
getting ready for some stout performances from their BAE combination. I wanted
to ask what the significance of the license plate in their trailer was.... but
I was afraid the answer was going to hurt.
Here's a real blast from the past: "240 Gordie" Bonin
And here's his new Top Fuel ride; owned by Ray Salter (whoever he is)
Our next stop was the Bill Edwards - Napa Auto Parts camp, where Bill Sr.
(in the center of the left photo) is trying to get his point across to the
crew. In the right photo, he's kneeling down checking the timing.
On the left, Bill Jr. bails out of the hot seat after the warmup, while
the crew goes back to work on the car in the right photo.
While paying a courtesty visit to the Pro pits, I caught some of the best
crew chiefs in the business sharing a humourous moment. In the left photo we
have, from left to right, Dick Lahaie, Bill Wolters and Bob Brooks.
Back at Bernie Plourd's pit we see the body going on, but there's still a
heap of work to do on the engine. We'll be back later to see if he's going to
make a pass today.
But first, we've got to check out the "action" on the other side of the
road, and try not to get run over by Kim Parker as she heads for the staging
lanes.
While waiting for the first qualifying session to begin, we had a chance
to check out some of the on-track improvements.... oops, looks like the scar
from the Bill Edwards flopper crash a few years ago is still there... and I
could swear I saw the track sweeper getting airborne over the bumps.
On the left we see the grandstands in early afternoon
On the right we see the grandstands in the late afternoon
This is what the sky looked like for most of the day; alternating between
really dark and not quite so dark. Then it rained... (thankfully, after the
qualifying had finished for the day).
Across from the media centre is the motorhome parking, complete with the
characters that seem to inhabit such conveyances. These guys are getting well
into the party mode already; we'll check on their progress throughout the
weekend.
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