The latest update as of May 25, 2021

We received a bonus in the email inbox this morning: a set of pics from Saturday's "Napa Auto Parts Night of Fire & Thunder" event held waaay up on the mountain at Bandimere Speedway (Morrison, CO). Besides a host of NHRA classes, a pair of Quick & Fast 16 eliminators, a pair of Jet Dragsters, the feature was eight honest-to-goodness nitro-burning AA/Fuel Altereds. It was a cold evening and the fuel altereds only got to make one pass, but there were some great runs and lots of exciting action. Check out the latest from our High Country correspondent, Dale B. Fackler.

PS: An even bigger bonus is that he sent these photos while enroute - no, not while he has driving - to Bakersfield, CA. Can you guess why? Yes, it's the 63rd annual Good Vibrations March Meet, running (hopefully!) for the first and last time in May. While spectator attendance is limited, and media credentials are virtually nonexistent, Dale is taking his long lenses up to the grandstands and we hope to see some more of his great work throughout the coming weekend and on into next week.

Then our Southwestern correspondent, BIG Bob Snyder takes over as he hits the highway for the loooong drive from Phoenix to Oskaloosa, IA for the next event on the FUNNY CAR CHAOS calendar, from Eddyville Raceway Park. But wait, there's more! He's staying in the midwest for the following week's FCC event at Kearney Raceway Park (Kearney, NE). Then we flip back to the NHRA regional event Thunder on the Mountain at Bandimere Speedway on the following week (June 18-19). Looks like we're going to be a little busy over the next month.... despite a total lack of drag racing up here in the "Great White North". One of these days... weeks... months... years?

Leading off the AA/Fuel Altered show was the well known local Jackson family team, with Keith Jackson at the wheel of their "High Heaven". His run was somewhat off-pace, shutting off early to a 7.058 - 136.83 time, and falling to Keith Wilson's (not shown) much better 6.175 - 236.54 effort in the "Witch Doctor" Fiat

(LEFT) Itinerant fuel driver, Roger "Radar" Lechtenberg (near lane) starts his burnout in the "Nitro Madness" Fiat, next to opponent Neil Hinman (far lane). Lechtenberg took a decisive win with a solid 6.373 - 217.21 over Hinman's trailing 8.421 - 98.48 clocking

(RIGHT) Here's a nice shot of Hinman launching hard, with the wheels up against Lechtenberg

Here's two more shots of Hinman as he continues downtrack with the front wheels still in the air. He finally gave up the chase and brought the front end down, coasting to the finish line and an 8-second timeslip

(LEFT) The next pair featured two veterans of the sport, with Jim Maroney (currently running NHRA Top Fuel) driving Jim Broome's "Speed Sport Special" (recreating a very famous name from the early days of fuel racing in the late 1950's), and he cranked out a very good 6.094 - 230.06 pass

(RIGHT) Running alongside him - at least for the first few hundred feet - was Johnny West, current tuner for several NHRA Big Show cars, and his Plan "A" "hobby car", but he was off the throttle early, shutting down to a 6.648 - 149.78 timeslip

Here's another view of the Plan "A" as it marches down track

The last pair of fuel altereds saw Lyle Greenberg running a single, as opponent Sean Cash broke after the burnout. Greenberg didn't spare the horses as he pushed the "Cone Hunter" to a career best 5.833 - 240.81 to set low e.t. and top speed of the event. The numbers eclipsed his best effort of 5.84 in the Top Alcohol Funny Car that he used to run

Another view of Greenberg heading towards the top end, and the scoreboards lighting up the best numbers of the evening

(LEFT) Looking for all the world like he should be in the Fuel Altered show, Joe Percoco was running his "Bat Outta Hell" blown alcohol altered in the Madcap Racing Engine Fast 16 eliminator, and he ran well in qualifying, with a 6.62 - 210.82 in Q1, and a 6.589 - 197.80 in Q2. Unfortunately, a redlight in the first round of eliminations ended his evening, despite running an even better 6.572 - 206.35 for the loss

(RIGHT) Having worse luck was Shawn Fisk in his clean looking front-engined dragster, as he broke before staging in Q1, then shut off (or broke) early in Q2 with a 7.655 - 145.38 coming up on the scoreboards. With 44 cars attempting to fit into 16 spots in the field, and an eventual bump spot of 7.013, his evening was over early.

One side note to the Fast 16 field: Besides a Funny Car Chaos regular, Tom Furches, in his "Made in America" Funny Car, there were two women competing who had very familiar names, at least to High Country fuel racing afficianados. Betsy Peek and Debbie Renck. The Peek Brothers Top Fuel team ran for many years until the early 2000's, with their biggest achievement being arunner-up finish at the 1996 NHRA U.S. Nationals with rookie driver Tony Schumacher behind the wheel. The Renck name is famous for long-time Colorado fuel racer Ed Renck, who was the Division Five Top Fuel champion several times and qualified at numerous national events.

(LEFT) We finish this report with the pyrotechnic portion of the event, with the Jet Dragsters "Volcano" (near lane) lighting it up against the "Wicked Sensation" (far lane)

(RIGHT) A very excited young spectator is in seventh heaven soaking in all the sights and sounds of the fast... faster... fastest cars, courtesy of her grandfather