2018 NHRA Arizona Nationals

[stratman]

I'm in Chandler AZ visiting my daughter, son-in-law, and grandsons. This past weekend (2/24-2/25) my son-in-law, one of my grandsons, and myself, went to qualifying and finals of the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. We had awesome seats both days at the start line.  Here are the pictures I took, in no particular order, except that the first four are Pontiacs- a '67 Firbird, a '70 Formula, and two pics of a Grand Am Pro Mod. There were a couple of late model GTOs, but the pictures were horrible. The lack of Pontiacs was sad.

There is a picture (#7) of John Force (Peak) and Jonnie Lindberg (Head) as they are inching forward to break the staging lights. This is the race where John Force's engine blew up and he crashed into Lindberg. Hope you enjoy the slide show...

 

http://s931.photobucket.com/user/us_strat/slideshow/AZ NATS?sort=4

Edited February 28, 2018 by stratman

[JUSTA6]

Awesome shots.  Looks like a great time!

[Last Indian]

10 hours ago, stratman said:

I'm in Chandler AZ visiting my daughter, son-in-law, and grandsons. This past weekend (2/24-2/25) my son-in-law, one of my grandsons, and myself, went to qualifying and finals of the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. We had awesome seats both days at the start line.  Here are the pictures I took, in no particular order, except that the first four are Pontiacs- a '67 Firbird, a '70 Formula, and two pics of a Grand Am Pro Mod. There were a couple of late model GTOs, but the pictures were horrible. The lack of Pontiacs was sad.

There is a picture (#7) of John Force (Peak) and Jonnie Lindberg (Head) as they are inching forward to break the staging lights. This is the race where John Force's engine blew up and he crashed into Lindberg. Hope you enjoy the slide show...

 

http://s931.photobucket.com/user/us_strat/slideshow/AZ NATS?sort=4

Love it Stratman! Brings back my fondest memories of those days! We (John) raced at a couple tracks together the last year I raced and his first as a funny car driver. I saw his blowup this weekend, that’s one of the reasons I left, my wife was a nervous wreck while I raced.

Thanks for sharing!

[Frosty]

Thanks for sharing, as always, stratman.

While you are in Arizona, you going to check out the Bondurant school of driving too? I noticed on of the signs for it in the background. I hear its a fantastic driving school.

[stratman]

8 hours ago, Frosty said:

Thanks for sharing, as always, stratman.

While you are in Arizona, you going to check out the Bondurant school of driving too? I noticed on of the signs for it in the background. I hear its a fantastic driving school.

Thanks Frosty! Yeah, Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler is quite a place. It is on an Indian reservation, so it has a casino and hotel, as well as a drag strip, a road course, and a lake for drag boats. They do have the Bondurant school, but I didn't bring the $4,200 needed for the three day school.

Edited March 1, 2018 by stratman

[stratman]

10 hours ago, Last Indian said:

Love it Stratman! Brings back my fondest memories of those days! We (John) raced at a couple tracks together the last year I raced and his first as a funny car driver. I saw his blowup this weekend, that’s one of the reasons I left, my wife was a nervous wreck while I raced.

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Last Indian... So cool that you raced with John Force. We could not see the crash from where we were sitting, we just saw parts of the body flying up in the air. Watched the replay when we got home, amazing that neither of the drivers were seriously. I think 20 years ago a crash like this one would not have had a happy ending. Praise God for all the safety measures we have today!

Edited March 1, 2018 by stratman

[Frosty]

12 hours ago, stratman said:

Thanks Frosty! Yeah, Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler is quite a place. It is on an Indian reservation, so it has a casino and hotel, as well as a drag strip, a road course, and a lake for drag boats. They do have the Bondurant school, but I didn't bring the $4,200 needed for the three day school.

Next time you are in Chandler then?

I know I'd write that check at least once in my life. Same for the Petty Driving Experience.

It's really rather amazing how large an area of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah that the Navajo Nation actually controls.

Edited March 1, 2018 by Frosty

[Last Indian]

16 hours ago, stratman said:

Thanks Last Indian... So cool that you raced with John Force. We could not see the crash from where we were sitting, we just saw parts of the body flying up in the air. Watched the replay when we got home, amazing that neither of the drivers were seriously. I think 20 years ago a crash like this one would not have had a happy ending. Praise God for all the safety measures we have today!

Just to clarify, when I said we raced together at a couple tracks I didn’t mean to imply I raced him or even Funny cars. I was a bracket racer, but at that time I was helping a guy Larry Nagel with a car called the Pocket Rocket. It was in the development stages then. It ultimately had a rocket engine in it, yes Hydrogen! Anyway even then, Force was impressive.

The Rocket has recently been resurrected! It is a tiny car as you can see!

 

 

[stratman]

On 3/1/2018 at 12:55 PM, Last Indian said:

Just to clarify, when I said we raced together at a couple tracks I didn’t mean to imply I raced him or even Funny cars. I was a bracket racer, but at that time I was helping a guy Larry Nagel with a car called the Pocket Rocket. It was in the development stages then. It ultimately had a rocket engine in it, yes Hydrogen! Anyway even then, Force was impressive.

The Rocket has recently been resurrected! It is a tiny car as you can see!

 

 

So cool, Last Indian! It is small!.. looks like 3/4 scale Vega. Do you remember the time and mph?

[stratman]

On 3/1/2018 at 9:25 AM, Frosty said:

Next time you are in Chandler then?

I know I'd write that check at least once in my life. Same for the Petty Driving Experience.

It's really rather amazing how large an area of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah that the Navajo Nation actually controls.

I will seriously consider it next year.

 

You are right, there is a great deal of Indian land out there. Some of the reservations you can fit a medium sized state in!

[Last Indian]

On 3/3/2018 at 11:56 AM, stratman said:

So cool, Last Indian! It is small!.. looks like 3/4 scale Vega. Do you remember the time and mph?

It was a custom made Vega body & it was about 1/2 scale! Look at #80 in the attached link. This was one of his fastest times I knew of, 3.225 sec. 1/4 mile @ 392 mph, but he traveled the country with the car, I wasn’t involved in that. Basically the car would go as fast as you wanted it to go! I’ll explain.

Nagel was a smart guy, you have to apply for a federal license to use hydrogen/rocket fuel. While the principal is simple, it’s very dangerous, the Challenge explosion! All the other cars you see that say rocket, aren’t they’re jet engines! Even the pocket rocket of Nagel’s that’s been resurrected is now a jet engine. A rocket engine in very simple principle is push hydrogen through  a platinum screen and you produce thrust. The larger the volume and the fast the flow through the screen the more thrust. The real issue for him was stopping! Some track have pretty short run after the finish. 

http://www.draglist.com/draglist/category.php?VIEW=Extended&CATEGORY[0]=ROCKET&x=exhibition&SORTBY=ET%2CYEAR%2CMPH+DESC&page=3

Edited March 4, 2018 by Last Indian

[stratman]

Wow!... almost 400mph!

Found this on YouTube...

 

[Frosty]

Last night, did anyone else besides me notice that Mega Race 2 between Fast N' Loud and Street Outlaws bunch was held at Wild Horses Pass Motorsports Park?

[JUSTA6]

59 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Last night, did anyone else besides me notice that Mega Race 2 between Fast N' Loud and Street Outlaws bunch was held at Wild Horses Pass Motorsports Park?

Busy place.   405  4 da win again.  

[Frosty]

Yup, but Farmtruck and Azn lost in the Gonorail....broke a tie rod or an axle.

[stratman]

On 3/6/2018 at 8:18 AM, Frosty said:

Last night, did anyone else besides me notice that Mega Race 2 between Fast N' Loud and Street Outlaws bunch was held at Wild Horses Pass Motorsports Park?

You bet I did!    

[Frosty]

11 hours ago, stratman said:

You bet I did!    

I figured you'd be a happy camper stratman.