NOTE: Click on the thumbnails to display the full-size images
Friday's Photo Gallery
With the Top Alcohol pits starting virtually at the doorstep of the media centre, we only had to stumble down the stairs to find Sean Bellemeur's basic white flopper on the left and the decidedly more colourful trailer door of John Lombardo Jr. in the next pit space.
Moving up the lane we're into the Larry Miersch A/Fuel Dragster area next, with Larry on the right side of the car in the right pic.
On the left we move in for a closer look at the injected nitro engine of Miersch before moving on to the Canadian SynOil funny car of Alberta's Ken Webster.
With Brian Hough's funny car body off and resting in the sun we snap a quick pic of it, nose on, before moving back across the road to check out the Bill Edwards pit area with a unique collage on the side of the trailer.
Here's two more closeups of the pictures and captions of the highlights of Bill Sr. and Jr.'s more than half century of drag racing.
Moving in closer we see the team deep in a discussion with Bill Sr. turning his back to us on the left side of the picture. Time to move on and it's another alky flopper next door as the Doug Gordon team has the body out behind the car.
What the heck; let's just snap a bunch of pics of funny car bodies basking in the morning sun. Steve Gasparelli's on the left and Jim Peters' on the right.
Not knowing that a cacklefest was planned for Sunday, it was a bit of a surprise to see Herm Petersen unloading his front-engine Top Fuel dragster. And he's still carrying it around in the same trailer they used back in 1970. Sure brings back memories.
On the other side of the road we take a quick glance at Dave "Germinator" Germain's alcohol funny car body before turning back to check out this very storied early A/Fuel Dragster. Note the Peregrine falcon on top of the injector.
Yes, it's the Doss, Clayton, and King Top Fuel Dragster, driven by So-Cal and Northwest legend, Wayne King. Check out the specs on the show card. And if memory serves me correct, the only difference between an A/FD and AA/FD was engine size, as both were considered Top Fuel Dragsters and both were supercharged nitro burners. Correct me if I'm wrong, Gerry.
I've just got to sneak in a couple more shots of the "Peregrine" before we move on.
With the car out of the "box" Herm and crew wheel the beautifully restored (or is it a re-creation?) car into place in the "Big Three" collection of classic Northwest Top Fuelers of the late 60's - early 70's.
On the left is the Petersen & Fitz car, in the middle if Jerry "The KIng" Ruth and on the right is the Dailey & Johnson entry. The three baddest cats in the Northwest at the time. To the right we've got a closer look at the Hank Johnson-driven car.
Here's two more shots of the Dailey & Johnson car and if you click on the left photo, you'll see the Bucky Austin Racing logo showing that he did the restoration on it. On the right is a nice shot of all three cars, with Jerry Ruth's occupying centre stage.
It's a mistake but I'm leaving it the way it is: the photo on the left hasn't been resized in the large version, so if you want to get a really good look at all three cars, just click on it and see what 2560 x 1920 pixels look like. Moving down the lane we next encounter the Jim Green "Assassin" SOHC 427 Ford Top Fuel car. A very rare piece as the only other racers that ran such a combination (in my memory bank) were Prudhomme, Hoover and Kalitta. That's in dragsters. I know a number of other racers ran them in floppers.
This car looks so good it deserves a few more shots. Check out the detail and remember this is from forty-two years ago.
Another pair of Assassin shots.
One more parting shot with the beautiful mural work on the body before we move on to the Cross, Mann & King Jr. Fuel dragster.
Here's two more shots of the late 60's - early 70's era car driven by Jerry "not Ruth" King. Complicating matters even more was another Jerry (Mann) was one of the trio who owned the car.
Another shot from behind of the Cross, Mann & King car. And before we move back into the present, one more look at the Top Fuel troika.
We're in the pro pits now, with Brian Thiel's new nitro flopper on display out in the roadway.
On the left is the newly rearranged pro pits with dragsters, funny cars and pro stocks all pitted together and on the right the ubiquitous Nitro Alley.
It's been a few years since I've been to one of NHRA's "Big Shows" but these hospitality areas seem to be getting bigger and more numerous by the year. And on the other hand is the Ron Smith pits where it's just business as usual.
But Mr. Smith has stepped up in the transportation stakes as his semi-trailer unit shows. Next to him at the literal end of the pro pit world, is another independent Top Fuel racer, California's Steve Chrisman, still using a Chaparral-style trailer to get to the races.
One more (actually a pair of) photo op(s) in the Pro Stock pits of Roger "The Pistonator" Brogdon. The dummy on the right has eyes that keep moving and seem to be following you. Very creepy.
On the way to the staging lanes I came across a couple more nostalgia cars, with Ron Gorans Top Fuel Dragster from 1966 occupying a premium spot on the return road.
Here's the show card with all the details on what was a pretty competitive car in the late 60's as evidenced by a 222 mph speed at this very track. In front of the car was a "Rat Fink" pit cart with cooler trailer in tow.
One of the truly legendary cars of the early 60's is the Hugh Tucker AA/SR (street roadster) with a big blown gas (stroked, I think) 392 Chrysler. It was a very common sight at national events in the early days and could often be found in the winners circle.
Two more shots of the Olds bodied car. And if you've never heard a blown gas early hemi, man you don't know what you missed.
On the left we've got Joey Severance getting dressed before his first qualifer, and just visible behind him is Mike Austin, driving Steve & Patty Federlin's car this season. To the right we've got Federlin checking over the car.
Some last minute adjustments seem to be in progress as Steve leans in near the front of the engine, while on the right, Shawn Cowie gets some help from girlfriend Tiffany to get his suit done up.
Here's a front and rear view of the slick-looking new Hadman-chassied car that Cowie's driving this year.
Next is a pair of pics of the Dale Carlson-driven Hugh Ridley car.
On the left is California heavy hitter Chris Demke in Jerry Maddern's Peen-Rite car, and to the right we've got young Cowie getting strapped in before his first pass of the weekend.
While the Federlin crew attend to driver Mike Austin, Joey Severance appears under a very mysterious looking shroud in the right side picture.
Here's a closeup of that shroud that must be a shade of some sort, even though it's black. Up near the head of the lanes is young Ms. Courtney Force, driving one of the Jerry Darien A/Fuel cars.
Here's the side view of the Courtney Force car, while the mid-day Friday grandstands are looking pretty barren as the Top Alcohol cars are running.
One more look at Force's car, with Mike Austin's car in the background and on the right we've got the Chris Demke car as the shade holder prepares to fold up her parasol.
Almost at the head of the lanes is the Dale Carlson-driven car of BC's High Ridley, with crew chief Jeff Johnsen doing umbrella duty to keep the hero driver cool and shady. And we finish our foto exposition for Friday with a shot of a Pro Stock car: Erica Enders' new Mustang.
That's it from the first day of qualifying from the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways.