The latest update as of July 20, 2024

The 35th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals
10:00 am UPDATE
It's day two of the 2024 NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways. Another beautiful, albeit very warm, day is on tap for the racers and the thousands of avid drag racing fans. For the sportsman racers, who completed qualifying yesterday, it's a day of mixed emotions, as the win-lights bring either disappointment or elation as their early rounds of eliminations play out.
For the Top Alcohol cars, there's one final qualifying session, scheduled for high noon, but without the drama that could be associated with it as both fields are well short of capacity. However, fighting for the top spot(s) that bring the bonus of a bye run in the first round of eliminations could make for some interesting and entertaining performances in that final session.
Friday night's second qualifying session for the PRO cars saw some great performances, starting with Pro Stock bikes and cars. Almost everyone improved and the fields tightened considerably, with only one non-qualified racer (Joey Grose - Pro Stock) in the four classes. Neither nitro class was full, with 14 dragsters and 15 funny cars, while the bikes were shorter still with just 12 entries.
The much promoted Musco liighting did light up the track considerably, but unfortunately it didn't really help the photographers, with only very narrow windows of usable illumination for them. Or at least for the Northern Thunder staff photo-journalist. Tune into this page this evening to see what we were able to salvage from the night session. The grandstands weren't all full, specifically the very large stand on the tower side, but overall, it was one of the larger crowds seen at Pacific Raceways in quite a while.
By the time the bikes and cars finished their session and the track was prepped for the nitro burners, the track was in full darkness but the extra lighting took full effect and made for great viewing for the spectators. The fuel session led off with Funny Car and with the track temp cooled down to 100 (F), everyone was looking for some big jumps in performance and the low e.t. of the first session (3.97) to be eclipsed very quickly.
It didn't happen until the fifth car down the track, Paul Lee, who pounded out a very competitive 3.917 - 327.03 to jump to the top of the field. Unfortunately for Lee, everyone knew that number would be erased well before the end of the evening. But it didn't happen that quickly, as the next two pairs, which included some of the heavy hitters, failed to break into the 3-second zone.
Finally, the performance dam broke with a side-by-side 3-second race between Ron Capps and J.R. Todd with Capps' 3.886 - 331.53 taking the top spot, at least temporarily, as the final pair awaited their chance to shine. And shine he did, as Austin Prock did what has happened so many times over the years with the "Prock Rocket", whipping it to a brilliant 3.838 - 328.62 to put a large exclamation point on the #1 qualifying spot.
As the air and track temps continued to drop, expectations for what the Top Fuel cars could crank out were running high. The session didn't start that way though, as local "hard trier" Ron Smith made an on-and-off-and-on again pass that finally stopped the clocks just past the 5-second mark. Then things got much quicker as Tony Stewart wiped out the low e.t. (3.804) from the first session, breaking into the 3.70's with a strong 3.778 - 319.90 and moved to the top of the field.
That great run was followed by the next pair running side-by-side 7-second passes, but the pair after that pumped up the volume in a big way, with Jasmine Salinas and Shawn Reed running nearly identical 3.73's. Salinas also set a career best speed of 332.43 and took the #1 spot away from Stewart. At least until the next pair crossed the finish line.
It actually took two pairs for that to happen as Justin Ashley broke into the 3.60's with a new low e.t. of 3.694 - 331.04 to grab the top rung on the ladder, while Doug Kalitta, running alongside him, was very close with a 3.710 for the #2 position. Just two pairs remained to run, and the first of those pairs saw Steve Torrence trump Ashley's effort with an even better 3.688 at a new track record speed of 335.32. His e.t. was just three thousandths slower than the e.t. record set by Antron Brown six years ago.
Almost lost in the excitement of Torrence's great run was Brittany Force's otherwise excellent 3.701 - 333.08 that slotted her into #3 on the list. That brought up the final pair of the evening, the two quickest cars of the first session, and while they ran well with both drivers, Josh Hart and Antron Brown running 3.74's, they ended up 7th and 8th respectively.
And that was a wrap on the first day of the 2024 edition of the NHRA Northwest Nationals. All that remained was for the very large crowd to make their way out of the facility and prepare to come back for another day of drag racing at this storied facility. Despite the best efforts of local law enforcement and track workers, it was quite an ordeal traversing the exit lanes to Highway 18.
12:00 noon UPDATE
We had a bit of free time, 30 minutes worth, courtesy of a Super Gas oildown, so we took advantage of the down time to trek on over to the Top Alcohol pits and have a quick chat with Shawn Cowie. He confirmed that his seven-year tuning partnership with Norm Grimes ended at the start of this season on very amicable terms. They are still in regular contact, with Shawn asking Norm questions, and buying specialty parts from him, but Shawn is now ultimately responsible for all the tuning decisions on the car, with input from Nik (Duperon) and Tom.
The Mundie's Towing & Recovery team has been very competitive this year and will take over the top spot in the national standings at this race from Mike Coughlin, who is idle this weekend. As they prepare for the final qualifying session in an hour's time, and first round of eliminations in the late afternoon, the Cowie team is in the #1 position by a substantial margin.
As for the future, Shawn outlined his schedule for the balance of the season, with the only real question being: would he run at Reading or Charlotte? Since the air and track conditions at Reading are superior, he chose the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals. Following the Pennsylvania race it's on to Dallas (FallNationals), Las Vegas (Nevada Nationals) and Pomona (In-n-Out Burger Finals) to finish out the season, with a "tuneup" weekend at the Phoenix regional thrown in for good measure.
When asked about his future plans in the class, he unequivocally ruled out switching to A/Fuel, and said "I'd quit before I ran that combination". Looking at the Super Comp dragster of son James beside the big hot rod, he said they were just taking it one step at a time and not rushing to put him in an alcohol car. Whether that car would be a team car to Shawn's or taking over the driving chores of the alky dragster remains to be seen.
1:00 pm UPDATE
Right on schedule, despite an oildown from a Super Gas car, the Top Alcohol cars came up with the dragsters first, followed by the funny cars. It wasn't exactly an auspicious start as the first pair of A/Fuel cars didn't do anything to write home about. Mike Quayle wasn't able to engage reverse after his burnout, was forced to shut off, then be pushed back behind the starting line. Running on a solo, Mitch Myers dropped a cylinder on the launch and blubbered his way to a 5.72, to lock himself into the #10 spot on the ladder, while Quayle sat at the bottom of the field in the 11th position.
Next up were Kim Parker and Mike Austin and they entertained the fans with a good side-by-side matchup, with Austin getting there first, 5.383 - 266.00 to Parker's close 5.436 - 261.02. The result left both drivers where they were, Parker in #8 and Austin 9th. An all A/Fuel pairing was next but it was some good: Casey Grisel with one of his quickest runs of the season at 5.316 - 276.18, and some bad: as Garrett Bateman smoked the tires early and failed to improve on his #4 qualifying spot.
More A/Fuel cars next, which wasn't surprising because 8 out of the 11 cars in the field were burning nitro. It featured the two best runs of the session - so far - with Trevor Larkin setting another career best for the third time in three runs, this time clocking 5.261 - 273.94, while Jackie Fricke improved on her earlier best, by one thousandth of a second, to a 5.281 - 273.55. Both drivers remained in their respective positions: Larkin #2 and Fricke #5.
The final pair of the round was an all blown alcohol affair with #1 qualifier Shawn Cowie facing #3 Jon Bradford. Both drivers fell off from their Friday best numbers, with Cowie still in the 5.20's at 5.276 - 276.75 - second quickest of the session - but still fastest. Bradford, on the other hand, gave up the chase early and slowed to a 5.432 at only 224.02 mph.
Notable by his absence from this final qualifying session was Joey Severance who put some serious smoke out of the pipes at the conclusion of his second run yesterday. There's no word if the damage was terminal, and we can only assume they wanted to be sure they had the parts to be competitive in eliminations. Skipping the session only cost them one position as Grisel eased past them and dropped them to #7 on the ladder.