AA/FD HERITAGE SERIES OUT OF TIME AT WINTERNATIONALS

Nostalgia Top Fuel racers focus on the March Meet fight at Famoso after NHRA runs out of time for Heritage Series at the 60th Winternationals.

The All American Fuel Dragsters were in the house for the 60th Annual Lucas Winternationals, but couldn’t beat the odds of time. The NHRA invited select Hot Rod Heritage Series Nostalgia Pro Stock, Top Fuel, and Funny Car racers to help celebrate sixty years of Winternationals history, but a series of unforeseen events ran out the clock on scheduled Friday and Saturday exhibition sessions. Two pairs of front-engine fuelers got down the track Friday night, and race control scrubbed all Saturday Heritage Series runs.

Nostalgia nitro action kicked off on Friday with a Funny Car matchup between Dan Horan Jr. and Justin Taylor. Horan took the round with a 5.65 ET at 262 MPH, but his parachute failed to deploy. Horan grabbed the brakes, bounced into the sand traps, and stopped upside down in the nets. The seasoned Funny Car and Top Fuel dragster driver emerged A-OK, but the cleanup pushed the clock too far forward. Race control turned the waiting Nostalgia Funny Cars and Top Fuelers back to the pits and postponed further race action until after Top Alcohol qualifying sessions at the end of the day.

Mendy Fry and Tyler Hilton rolled their AA/Fuelers onto a cold track as the sun slipped behind the horizon. Fry ran a 5.75 ET at 197 MPH in the High Speed Motorsports hemi, and Hilton belted out a 5.97-second 226 MPH blast in the big-block Chevrolet-powered Great Expectations III. Adam Sorokin cackled out in the all-new Champion Speed Shop dragster with Rick White in the other lane. Sorokin clicked the small-block Chevrolet at half-track for a 6.31 ET at 179 MPH, and Rick White churned out a 6.30 ET at 173 MPH in the Neil & White dragster with an oildown that spelled the end of Friday night nitro under the lights.

Nostalgia Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Pro Stock were in the lanes waiting for their Saturday sessions when a series of unforeseen oildowns, mishaps, and delays pushed the clock past the limit. Race control canceled all Heritage Series exhibition runs due to time constraints as the big show rolled on. The decision was disappointing for the invited Heritage Series racers and fans but not entirely unexpected, given the unyielding live television broadcast schedule of Winterationals Mello Yello Drag Racing Series action.

The weekend moved two-time Heritage Series Nostalgia Top Fuel Champion Mendy Fry, whose Friday night run might have been the last for her and the High-Speed Motorsports team. “We may bring the car out again, but there isn’t anything on our schedule at the moment,” said Fry. Adam Sorokin faced a different kind of uncertainty as he drove the untested Champion Speed Shop dragster to half-track on its inaugural run, and the two-time March Meet winning driver is looking forward to Famoso. “I want to see what it does on a full pass,” said Sorokin.

The next stop for the All-American Fuel Dragster coalition is the 2020 Good Vibrations Motorsports March Meet presented by Lucas Oil – March 5th-8th at Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, California. The famous fight at Famoso is the first of five NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series Nostalgia Top Fuel Championship races. Head over to Famoso Raceway for March Meet information and check out AAFD.TV for the full 2020 Heritage Series AA/Fuel racing schedule. Auto Club Famoso Raceway

All images screen grabs from NHRA.tv LIVE streaming coverage of the 60th Annual Wintenationals.