So how did I spend my 4th of July? At Renegade Raceway in Yakima. For the first time in decades, blown nitro funny cars were returning to Central Washington for a two night program called 'Nitro Nights Under the Lights. And if nostalgia nitro alone wasn't enough to justify the six hour round trip from Portland, I'd heard a rumor that drag racing legend Dave Benjamin might turn up in his seldom-seen AA/FA. Now if there was even a chance that Benjamin would be there, I wanted to make sure that I was there, too.

I'm going to begin this story with a couple of disclaimers. First, this is not a race report. It is a highly opinionated impression of just one night of a two night race. Because I normally work events as a photojournalist, it had been a long time since I'd had the chance to actually unwind at a drag race. My plan for Yakima was to show up, pay the admission, and watch from the margins. I wouldn't have press credentials and, if I kept true to my plan, there would be no 'bench racing' in the pits. I wanted to assess this race with clinical detachment. You see, I also had a goal in Yakima. I wanted to answer a question that has been kicking around inside my head for the past couple of years, namely this: I've been curious as to whether or not nostalgia nitro is truly a viable option in smaller markets across the country (or is everyone fooling themselves?). Yakima, with a population of just 71,000, and no other large towns nearby, seemed like the perfect laboratory to put nostalgia nitro to the test. I figured that if a handful of old style funny cars could succeed here they could probably succeed just about anywhere.

Joining me on this road trip was my former assistant and fellow draglist contributor, Nolan Hibbard. It had been too long since we had attended an event together, and even longer since either of us had shown up at a drag strip merely to kick back and watch from the stands. I was looking forward to it.

And so, at noon on the fourth of July we set out from Portland, with the usual drizzle misting down from a heavy sky. Little more than an hour later we were through the Columbia Gorge and had cleared the Cascade Mountain range. The sun was out. Now we were in the High Desert country. It gets extremely hot in this part of the world during the summer months, especially at lower elevations, and yet we had shown up on the coolest day of the week, possibly the entire month. The thermometer read just 81 degrees Fahrenheit as we crossed the Columbia river into Washington State, heading north towards Yakima. It felt more like September than July, but I had a feeling it was going to be a great night for a drag race.

Landscape outside of The Dalles, Oregon.

Hillside in South Central Washington.

Those who have never visited the inland Northwest of Washington and Oregon might be surprised to learn that roughly two thirds of both states are classified as desert, more accurately, 'High Desert,' complete with tumble weeds, scorpions, cacti and rattlesnakes. Less than 10 inches of rain falls on this landscape each year: it looks and feels like a northern extension of Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. There are roughly a half dozen little-known NHRA drag strips spread out across this High Desert region. and if desolate,windswept tracks are your thing, you couldn't do any better than these. I was looking forward to my first visit to Yakima's Renegade Raceway.

Three hours after setting out from Portland we arrived in the Yakima suburb of Wapato, where the track is located. Before checking into the motel (yeah, we really were taking it easy) we decided to stop and find out exactly when the race would begin.





Like all of these High Desert dragstrips, this one was located out in the sticks, though not very far off the main highway. The kids at the gate provided us with the event schedule, and we had a few hours to kill, so we continued on to Yakima. I had driven through this area on the freeway, once, but didn't stop to have a look around. Well, in the event that anyone is curious, this is what downtown Yakima looks like.

The main drag in Yakima: a true Western town.

After lazing around at the motel until six o'clock we headed back out toward the track. It felt great to be on vacation instead of preparing for a long night of photography on the starting line. This race wasn't an assignment and nobody expected us to be there. However, I had brought two cameras with me, so it really wouldn't be fair to say that I had no interest in documenting the event. I merely assumed that the prospect of shooting from the stands would be enough to discourage me from taking more than a few pictures.

We arrived at the track and pulled into one of the traffic lines at the gate: they weren't huge lines, but long enough to tell me that this race was going to be a success. I should mention the (unbelievably reasonable) $10 admission fee.

I have also always gotten a kick out of tracks where the spectators have to sign waivers, as was the case here.

The first oddities of the evening were a couple of single engine propellor airplanes parked just off to the side of the bleach box: apparently they had landed on the strip earlier in the day. We continued on into the pit area ($5 for a pit pass) and found Bucky Austin's recreation of Jerry Ruth's old slingshot. Ruth was slated to be the master of ceremonies at this event, or something along those lines. For those who haven't already seen a zillion photographs of the car, here are a couple more.





Now seems like a good time to throw in the next disclaimer: I had brought along one of my conventional 35mm cameras, but for the first time at a racetrack I was also shooting digital. And I could now see that many of its features which might come in useful were still a mystery to me. Now I am not the sort of lame arse who blames his equipment for mediocre results. In this case, I had not bothered to learn everything I should have about the device before showing up at the track, and the photographer (me) not the camera, is responsible for the outcome. Still, I was insistent that rather than spend upwards of $100 for film processing I was going to shoot mainly digital at this race. This is a longwinded explanation of why the pictures are not up to my usual standards.

In any case, this race was supposed to be about fun and relaxation, right? We'd been in the pits less than five minutes before I stumbled upon this little gem painted on the roofline of the Shawn Nault driven Barracuda AA/FC.



I remembered reading somewhere that Gary Ritter was tuning this car. I had never met Ritter and now I looked at the crew to see if I could make him out. Sure enough, although he was a perfect stranger to me, he was a familiar face because I had been following his racing career in magazines and on TV since1974. I walked up and introduced myself -- wait a minute! What happened to my game plan of merely 'looking on' as a detached observer? I was already slipping into work mode! I kept our conversation short, but that was sufficient: in those brief moments I could tell that Gary Ritter was my kind of drag racer.

Meeting him turned out to be the highlight of the night.

Gary Ritter.

Still, it was time for me to get back to unwinding at the track and keeping my distance from the racers. I reminded myself that I wouldn't be able to assess the event with detachment if I made friends with everyone. So the next task (could this be turning into work, too?) was to scope out the other nitro cars in the pit area. I remembered that there were supposed to be three nitro FCs on the bill, plus the rumor about Dave Benjamin. As my buddy and I walked past the long rows of trailers I was impressed: event promoter Derek Snelson had promised upwards of thirty 'feature' cars, and he had delivered. There were alky altereds right and left, slingshots both blown and injected (on nitro as I would soon learn), blown Super Comp dragsters and more Pro Mod and Pro Street than I could count on both hands. Finally I found another nitro FC parked in the back of the pit area: it was Chris Davis' "Nitro Pimp."



Now because this car has perhaps the coolest (and strangest) paint job I have ever seen, I am going to plug their website -- www.nitropimp.com -- where Davis explains that the gold you see on the car isn't paint at all, but metal flakes in 'Valspar clear.' In any event this vintage Vega body is a pleasure to look at, a bitch to photograph and....so pretty that I almost wish they would retire it and turn it into a show car.

Unusual artwork.

The only dragstrip I know with a railroad trestle-bridge for a backdrop.

After being dazzled by all the sparkles on the "Nitro Pimp," the Harter family's pretty Avenger TAFC parked nearby looked almost plain by comparison.

Shane Harter's Avenger TAFC might well have been the highest horsepower car on the premises.

I spotted Todd Hoerner's NHRA Pro Stock stratus being unloaded from the trailer and I was getting the idea about this 'Nitro Nights' event: it was a bit nostalgic, a bit contemporary -- actually a smorgasbord the likes that I have never seen outside of maybe Spokane Raceway Park. But while Spokane's AHRA World Finals had the unmistakable feeling of slow decline, there was a feeling of new energy about this event, as if everyone had shown up for a good time without expecting to spend or to make a ton of money. It was too soon to tell, but ... the race almost seemed to have the ambiance of a festival.

A Mopar powered Nash that went rounds.

A nice pair of AA/Altereds.

Ray Williamson of the Northwest Funny Cars group. I last saw him running with the same paintjob at Spokane in 2002. Seeing this car again was kind of like bumping into an old friend.

Perhaps my favorite vehicles in the Yakima pits (which is why I've saved them for last) was a trio of vehicles from the Northwest Funny Cars Association. This group has been operating 7.50 funny cars out of Montana and Idaho for at least the past decade, and though I don't know any of the racers personally, I have photographed them for many years at other tracks, and I've always been impressed by their act. So I'm going to pitch their website: www.thenwfc.com

Another of the NWFC entries, Dave Speese's gorgeous Corvette out of Idaho.

The fans close in for a dose of nitro.

We've almost made it out of the pits! Next, on to part two of the article.