The latest update as of April 27, 2021

After a tough day of qualifying for the FUNNY CAR CHAOS crew on the little used Amarillo Dragway, conditions improved slightly for Saturday afternoon's third (final) qualifying session. With the hot sun beating down on the old asphalt, no one expected any really quick e.t.'s, but a number of racers did step up and improve their positions heading into the evening elimination rounds.

QUALIFYING - Session #3 - Final

(LEFT) First out of the lanes was the beautiful multi-coloured "High Heaven" Camaro of the Jackson family, driven by Keith Jackson. They didn't improve on Friday's best of 5.294 - 101.65, and dropped out of the "B" field, falling from #15 to #21 on the final list

(RIGHT) Making a big move upwards, Jade Cook pushed her gasoline burning, nitrous boosted "Nemesis" to a 4.757 - 144.33 to advance from the middle of the "C" field (#21) into the "B" field in the #14 position

(LEFT) Another one who made a big step up was Chuck Loftin in his nitro hemi powered "Motivation" Mustang. After a Friday best of 5.235 - 104.54, Chuck moved up four spots to near the top of the "B" field, with a solid 4.550 - 134.01 pass

(RIGHT) Coming all the way up the ladder from the "lucky" #13 position to the very top of the heap, Colorado's Bill Bernard whipped the "Hellanor" to a much improved (from 5.032 - 110.69) to low e.t. and top speed marks of 4.084 - 177.67 and the #1 position in the "A" field

(LEFT) Before they ran, some of the racers checked out the starting line, with "hired gun" Jake 'The Snake' Sanders (left) giving his advice to New Mexico's Lyle 'Cone Hunter' Greenberg (right)

(RIGHT) With no NHRA national events on the immediate horizon, Jeff 'The Surfer' Diehl (left) came out from California to give Washington state's Don 'Atomic Punk' Knoblauch ideas on how to handle the traction issues

(LEFT) Despite a solid launch, Nick Johnson wasn't able to improve on his previous 4.659 - 148.65 in the "Prairie Fire" and dropped out of the "A" field, from #8 to #11, landing in the middle of the "B" field

(RIGHT) Even though he picked up more than a half second in e.t., Tim Boychuk only climbnd two rungs on the ladder, moving up from #18 to #16, leaving him at the bottom of the "B" field with a 4.659 - 148.65 clocking

(LEFT) Showing that there's still room in FCC for an old-school, short wheelbase Vega, Mike Buchanan pushed the "Hombre" to an improved 5.050 - 141.14 pass (over Friday's 5.346 - 104.46, but fell three spots from #16 to #19, and a spot in the middle of the "C" field

(RIGHT) After a solid previous day's showing that left him #3 on the list and solidly in the "A" field with his 4.405 - 160.50, the "Northland Express" of Mitch Bowen couldn't improve and dropped down to #6 on the final qualifying chart

(LEFT) Not content to sit on Friday's 4.588 - 139.33 (good for #7), Jeff Cameron coaxed a better pass out of the "Jake's Speed Shop" car, but his 4.457 - 151.45 didn't move him up the charts and he stayed in the #7 spot

(RIGHT) The biggest improver on the property was the Kirk Williams driven "Williams Bros. Racing" entry, as he went from the very bottom of the list, in the #29 spot at 11.435 - 47.29, all the way up to the middle of the "A" field - and lane choice in the first round of eliminations - with a very good 4.281 - 163.94 pass

(LEFT) Cutting nearly a full second off his Friday numbers (5.627 - 99.27), Bob Alberty Jr. jumped up from #19 to #13 (and advanced from the "C" to the "B" field) with a much better 4.732 - 151.61 out of the "Thunderin' Okie" entry

(RIGHT) Considering all the success he's had over the past few years at FUNNY CAR CHAOS events, it was surprising to see that Ken Singleton wasn't able to improve his performance or position with the "High Risk" car. He even dropped a spot from Friday's #2 to #3 on the final list, with his Friday run of 4.173 - 142.34 standing as his best going into eliminations

(LEFT) Another case of one step forward - and two steps back - as Shayne Lawson improved from Friday's 4.560 - 120.51 to a last session 4.465 - 145.68, but saw the "Man O' War" drop from #6 to #8 on the final list and a first round pairing with the low qualifier in the "A" field

(RIGHT) Saving his best effort for last, Lyle Greenberg got down the track in an improved fashion from Friday's dismal 7.448 - 107.43 timeslip to a much better 5.699 - 112.91 in the final session. That's where the good news stopped for the "Cone Hunter" as she only moved up one spot from #25 to #24 and a spot near the bottom of the "C" field

PRE-RACE CEREMONIES and FLYPAST

Before things got down to business, the Star Spangled Banner brought everyone to their feet, on the track and in the stands

While the announcer held court in front of the tower, a group of vintage USAF warplanes and aerobatic planes did an impressive flypast

Here's three more images of the vintage warplane flypast during the national anthem. Great shots on a very clear day.

I'm going out on a limb here, but I think these last two flypast photos are of a Tiger Moth bi-plane, a favourite of cropdusters and aerobatic flyers. Corrections are cordially invited

More areobatics as the show continues in the sky. On the left we see a pair of vintage bi-planes, while on the right, a more modern version of the bi-plane with an enclosed two-seater cockpit

ELIMINATIONS - Round One - "A" Field

With the pre-race festivities out of the way, it was time to get down to business, as the first pair of cars rolled out of the staging lanes and fired up to start eliminations. Leading the way were the "A" field.

On the left, we've got Kirk Williams lighting up the tires on the burnout, while Steve Vang slows to a stop after his tire heater on the right

Kicking off the first round of eliminations, the #4 and #5 cars in the "A" field faced off. Burning out first was Kirk Williams in the "Williams Bros. Racing" entry. When the light turned green, his opponent, Steve Vang in the "Weekend Warrior" launched first (.069 to .083) but couldn't hold off Williams' 4.487 - 168.22 as his 4.610 - 135.55 fell a couple of car lengths short at the finish line

Getting a free pass when scheduled opponent Shayne Lawson sat in the pits with breakage, Bill Bernard laid down some serious power with a very good 4.114 - 176.35 on the competition bye

Here's a quartet of Nick Poloson in the "Bucket List", burning out, then launching hard enroute to the win over the no-show (broken) Jeff Cameron. Just past the finish line, it looks like Poloson got into some trouble as he bounced across the centerline when he left the prepped and sticky area of the track surface, but it didn't disqualify his 4.133 - 176.95 pass

Slowing after his burnout, Ken Singleton in the very familiar "High Risk" car (left), got set to face Mitch Bowen in the "Northland Express"

Coming off the line almost together, with an .058 to .078 r.t. advantage to Ken Singleton (left), the win went to the "High Risk" car as Singleton's 3.936 - 191.76 (new low e.t. and top speed of the meet clockings), turned on the winlight over Mitch Bowen's (right) game effort of 4.279 - 165.32

ELIMINATIONS - Round One - "B" Field

Burnout time with Nick Johnson on the left, and Jade Cook on the right

If you just looked at the e.t.'s it appeared to be a close race - on paper - but Jade Cook in her "Nemesis" entry (left) gained a HUGE advantage right at the starting line as she left a sleeping Nick Johnson in the "Prairie Fire" (right), by a .067 to .333 margin, making her 4.682 - 145.20 pass much better than needed to hold off Johnson's way-too-late 4.686 - 146.65 losing effort

(LEFT) Stopping at the end of his burnout is Matt Nissen in the "Runnin' Down A Dream" car

(RIGHT) Staged up and ready to launch are Chuck Loftin in the "Motivation" Mustang (near lane) and Matt Nissen's "Runnin' Down a Dream" in the far lane

(LEFT) Launching first (.044 to .196) in the blown alky car, Matt Nissen (right side) took an immediate lead over Chuck Loftin (left side), but the bigger horsepower of the blown fuel entry took the winlight, by a 4.535 - 162.37 to 4.724 - 149.01 decision. The gap at the stripe was barely a car length in what turned into a very close race

ELIMINATIONS - Round One - "C" Field

ELIMINATIONS - Round Two - "A" Field

ELIMINATIONS - Round Two - "B" Field

ELIMINATIONS - Round Two - "C" Field