NOTE: Click on the thumbnails to display the full-size images

NOTE: The Gordie Bonin "Senior Dragster" pics are near the bottom of the page

Sunday's Photo Gallery

We start our photo gallery today with a pair of shots of Cory Kincaid warming up his rebuilt (changed some bad pushrods) engine and it sounds stout.

One more look at the Kincaid car before we move along. And find a pretty blue dragster in the staging lanes. Despite the lack of big numbers of competitors this weekend, this Regan Nelsen dragster is one of a host of good looking hot rods here.

Leaving us behind on its way to the starting line, Regan Nelsen pulls away. Turning around I take a good look at the display at the front of the Sekura brothers pit area.

With the body up we get a closer look at the mechanicals in the Sekura brothers '69 Camaro Funny Car. Being a warmup junkie, when I hear Jim Attwell's car firing up next door it's time to check it out.

While the warmup continues, Attwell intently studies the onboard instrumentation, while his crew makes some tuning adjustments on the outside, including dialing up the idle speed on the barrel valve.

I finally caught up to the driver/owner of the "unidentified purple dragster" that I kept seeing yesterday. Ask and ye shall receive: his name is Joe Polito. Next to him was the slick black "Dart Vader" car. Bad pun, great running car.

And then I entered the twilight zone, the zone where anything you thought was impossible, suddenly becomes possible. The zone where invention is the mother of something or other, and certainly the next series of shots are of quite an invention. The party responsible is Al Rupertus and it's an '87 Pontiac Fiero. To answer the obvious question: No, I never thought I'd ever be taking pictures of a Pontiac Fiero. Ever. In my lifetime.

More pics of Rupertus's Fiero, showing the madness behind the method.

Time to take our leave after one last look at the backend of the Rupertus car and then we stumble onto the absolutely evil looking '41 Willys of local racer Hank Weultjes. Yes, it's an honest to goodness 1957 Chrysler hemi in there.

The Blackstone Race Cars chassis (Boise, Idaho) has the body sitting very low and looking very tough. One more look at the car, closing in from the side shows the engine detail. Can't wait to see it running.

Passing by the Gary Gummow pits we see the car up on the stands, being readied for its first lap of the day. On the other side of the road, we get a better look at the Dart Vader car with only a few fans checking it out and basically getting in the way.

Back up on the concourse where the number of real nostalgia cars keeps growing, this '31 Model A pickup with a blown small-block Chevy powered piece looks pretty nice basking in the sun.

Moving on up to a much later model, also with a blown Chevy. This time its a big block is this bright red '57 Chev A/Gasser.

Before we move on, here's a closer look at that powerplant with the hood up. Next in the lineup is a sweet looking '32 Dodge coupe with a carbureted 354 Hemi powerplant.

Here's a better look at the Chrysler power between the frame rails of the '32 Dodge. And almost before we know it, we're back trackside and catching Joey Steckler screaming by on another high rpm burnout.

On the left side we've got Sherrie Bodnarchuk (far lane) and Joey Steckler (near lane) staging before their matchup. On the right side there's Cory Kincaid laying down a big burnout in his '55 Chev funny car.

In front of a fair-sized crowd, Cal Tebb backs up from his burnout in that very bright orange '69 GTO Judge. On the right there's another grandstand in the background shot, with Cory Kincaid backing up from his burnout.

Ably assisting Kincaid in backing up is one of his crew girls. With the preliminaries out of the way, it's staging time for Cal Tebb (far side) and Cory Kincaid (near lane).

On the left it's Cory Kincaid launching the big '55 Chev to another solid pass, a 5.016 at 142.31 mph. And if there's a crazy girl ringing a set of cowbells that must mean the Sekura brothers are coming up next.

This time it's Ron Sekura in the '69 Camaro flopper, captured at the end of his burnout in front of the grandstands. Still with the stands as the backdrop, we've got the backup (and cowbell) girl sprinting after the race car.

Backing up with cowbell girl in front, ringin' and pointin' is Ron Sekura in the team's '69 Camaro funny car. And here she comes, jogging back to the starting line.

Launching into a 5.22 pass at 130 mph is Ron Sekura in the team's '69 Camaro funny car. Coming up behind us on the return road is Cal Tebb's GTO Judge, being towed by a very classy car, a late model Dodge Charger. By the way, Tebb drove all the way back up the return road to almost the starting line on every pass. Big fuel tank or what guys?

Here's a view of the grandstands at the end of today's first round of the Rocky Mountain Nostalgia Funny Cars. Definitely a larger crowd than yesterday and probably at least a few bucks in the bank for Calgary Drag Racing Association. After the funny cars were the Blown Renegades and first up is Jim Attwell's Scarlett Fever dragster.

Backing up in front of the fans are the two fastest renegades, Dwayne Treleaven in the altered on the left, and Jim Attwell in his dragster on the right. In our other pic, they're staging with Attwell in the far lane and Treleaven in the near lane.

Two views of Hank Weultjes new '41 Willys: going and coming. Still shaking it down he makes a 5.38 pass at just under 130 mph in the 1/8-th mile. As a side note, hearing this car run with its 392 Hemi nearly brought tears to my eyes, and it wasn't from the burning alcohol, it was remembering just how sweet a '92 sounds at high revs on the burnout.

Before we move on, here's two more shots of Hank Weultjes staging and launching the Willys.

After yesterday's troubled effort, the Gary Gummow Corvette sounds much better today and looks to be ready to lay down a pass.

Gary Gummow launches his Top Sportsman Corvette to an early shutoff 6.03 at 88 mph. And the grandstands are getting fuller all the time.

No wonder the stands are filling up, as I turn around in time to see the biodiesel Jet Funny Car of Kevin Therres pulling in.

Before he thunders off into the distance, here's a couple more shots of Therres burner popping and staging as the starting line crew tries to hang onto their equipment.

Meanwhile, upstairs in the control tower, event manager (and general ass kicker) Vernon Christy pores over another data entry problem while the computer operator and cooridnator Joyce Brown tries to stay out of the way. At the other end of the room, the announcers booth is empty as they're outside with portable microphones right now.

Back outside (that was a really quick break wasn't it?) it's the start of the second and final round of the nostalgia funny cars today. Coming out first and backing up from his burnout is Cal Tebb in the orange GTO Judge. In the right side pic we've got Joey Steckler (far lane) staging up beside Cal Tebb (near lane).

On the left we've got Cal Tebb launching to low e.t. of the meet, a 4.719 at 151.13 mph. To the right, we've got the next pair of cars with Cory Kincaid lighting up the tires and Sherrie Bodnarchuk getting ready to follow suit.

A pair of backup pics now, with Sherrie Bodnarchuk directly from the side in her '70 Superbird and Cory Kincaid in his '55 Chev.

With the burnouts done and final checks made, Cory Kincaid (near lane) and Sherrie Bodnarchuk (far lane) stage up. Then we've got Cory Kincaid launching to his best of the weekend, 4.807 at 147.34 mph.

With the final round of the feature cars underway, the grandstands are fuller than they've ever been this weekend.

Here's what the control tower and "media center" look like. Nothing too flashy, but it serves its purpose. To the right, we've got a low-angle view of Corey Sekura (taking over from Ron with only one car running between them today) doing his last burnout of the weekend.

Backing up from that burnout, Sekura is directed as always by one of the cowbell girls. Then pulls into stage under the control of crew chief Morris.

Back for more test and tune passes as part of the Blown Renegades program, Hank Weultjes burns out hard, then backs up

While it's not the most photogenic car out there - where's the skulls and flaming skeletons that should be on something like this, Hank? Despite the lack of paint he manages to get it down the track with another consistent low 5-second pass.

Bunring out, then backing up prior to his final run of the weekend is Jim Attwell. The car slowed on this run to a 5.404 as the blower popped the burst panel and lost boost.

Attwell leaves hard with the front wheels barely skimming the ground (left) and Gary Gummow makes his best leave of the weekend as the team is slowly working out the bugs before next weekend's Rocky MOuntain Nationals.

Now we've got a series of shots of the diesel big rigs, starting with the burnouts. Big burnouts.

Then the two trucks staged before pounding the ground.

And finally left the line with the rear tires screaming and the exhaust thundering, to 17 and 18-second times.

Before we climbed the stairs back up into the tower, we grabbed this shot of Sherrie Bodnarchuk's '70 Superbird flopper being towed back with her ultra-neat little Crosley station wagon. Upstairs the announcers are back in action, with Rome Awde on the microphone, while his partner Jerry Wood checks out the action on the return road.

Now we've got the two people who really made this event work behind the scenes: on the left it's Joyce Brown working the timing and tech computer, while Vernon Christy (General Ass Kicker) attempts once more to sort out the tech cards.

Coming up to pay us another visit is Mr. 240, Gordie Bonin, with Rome Awde on the left and Vernon Christy on the right.

With the feature cars done for the day and only the finalists left in the sportsman staging lanes, the grandstands are definitely thinning out.

Caught in the act: in the left pic, Gordie Bonin tries to zip up the loaner firesuit, prior to climbing into the loaner junior dragster kindly provided by Brant Inglis.

While Gordie checks out the helmet, Brant (on the left) explains some of the features of the car, before Gordie tries once more to do up the suit and still be able to breathe.

Helmet on and chin strap being done up, Gordie is nearly ready to climb aboard on the left, and on the right, he's inside but not all the way down into the seat.

Now it's serious sardine time as Gordie hangs on while Brant does up the belts and tries to fit the steering wheel back in place.

Last minute adjustments get Gordie securely fastened inside his junior coffin - I mean dragster - and in the pic on the right, they wait for the signal to move into the burnout box.

In the left pic with the too-tight helmet, Gordie looks like a chipmunk with a big mouthful of acorns, before rolling into the waterbox ready for his burnout.

Being pushed back in the seat by the g-forces on the burnout (left) and being pushed back to the line after crossing it on the burnout by Brant and Bob the starter.

We've reached the end of the line, as Gordie moves up into the stage beams under direction of Brant and in the final frame, launches hard on the first amber - it wasn't a pro car - but nobody told Gordie.

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That's it from Race City, site of the Father's Day Funny Car Classic.