Hero of the 2000 Bakersfield March Meet
By Jim Sorenson
Holder of Low ET for the 2000 March Meet, Jeff Bennett and the "No
Mercy" Fiat AA/FA, with a 5.83! Running in Nostalgia Eliminator no
less! Actually, this is a pretty up to date piece, which only qualifies as a
Nostalgia racer because of its Fiat body ... not to take anything away from
the Bennetts and their effort. Assisted by NHRA TF guy Robert Reehl, they
managed in three qualifying passes to break completely out of Nostalgia
Eliminator ... which has a 7.50 index. Their first pass on Friday was a
meager 6.17 against Brendan Murray, an ex-NE champion, who ran a 7.54 in the
other lane, waaay behind Jeff. Second pass, Saturday, was an improved 5.93
... then for their last qualifying pass Saturday afternoon, Jeff ripped off
a 5.83, qualifying him in dead last position (as he broke out by 1.67
seconds!)
Jeff wasn't really trying to get into the field, but wanted to do a
little testing and show the crowd what the modern AA/FA can do...and they
went nuts! Unfortunately, on Sunday Jeff was informed that if he was going
to make passes like he had earlier, and completely blow off the index, he
would not be welcome at another GoodGuys event, as he was
"overshadowing the Top Fuel cars" (for which Low ET was a 6.04).
So, what do you folks think? Was Jeff making the Fuel Dragsters look bad? Or
was he just entertaining the crowd?
Leave your answers in the Awful Awful Fuel Altereds guestbook,
or e-mail 'em here
and we'll see how this all pans out.
See the Awful Awful
Fuel Altereds site for photos of over 4,000 AA/Fuel Altereds!
Jim Sorenson
