Beautiful weather today greeted racers, fans and photographers for the first day of National Times Trials at Firebird International Raceway in Phoenix, Arizona.  Temps in the mid-70’s for most of the day gave drivers and crew chiefs a baseline for new season tune-ups. 

Here is Friday’s report...

Team owner Don Schumacher (left) and DRO Publisher Jeff Burk use some of the quiet time between testing rounds to solve all of the problems facing drag racing in 2008, well at least the two had the time to chat about the bigger rumors of the past couple of weeks.

A trim John Force and his daughter Ashley look over Courtney Force being strapped into the Darrien & Meadows A/FD.  John vows he’ll be back driving his Mustang this weekend with his team funny cars, the first time back behind the wheel after that horrific crash with Kenny Bernstein.

Courtney Force takes the Darien & Meadows A/Fuel Dragster to a second quick 5.907 E.T. (of the four TAD’s testing on Friday) at 237.30 MPH at the Friday National Time Trials in Phoenix.  Courtney went on to earn her TAD license and hand over the seat of the white dragster to sister Brittany to test on Saturday.

Kim and Tim Richards are back tuning on “Pop” Kenny Bernstein’s Budweiser Top Fuel Dragster driven by son Brandon.  Back to Firebird on Saturday after Brandon aborts his first Friday run because of severe tire shake.

Larry Dixon Jr. carded the quickest number of the day - stopping the clocks with a 4.715 E.T.  He shut off early coasting to a 263.51 MPH in the Snake’s newly wrapped U.S. Tobacco Top Fuel Dragster, over the winter Jeg’s High Performance Mail Order has also come aboard as an associate sponsor for the 2008 campaign. 

Looks like fuel coupe veteran Frank Hawley is explaining to DSR funny car driver Jack Beckman about the ‘one that got away’ on a winter fishing trip.  Beckman won the SCEDA super comp dragster event last Saturday at AAA Raceway in Fontana while keeping his reaction times fresh behind the wheel of his Championship winning “Blackbird” rear engined dragster.

Beckman will test his Mail Terminal Services-sponsored, Don Schumacher Racing Dodge flopper on Saturday.

Melanie Troxel is learning the ins and outs of her switch over to to pilot one of Mike Ashley’s mustache and bearded “Fuel Doctor II” funny cars. 

Troxel took out mid-track lane cones while testing with Tim Wilkerson in the other lane.

Jim Head, in his Toyota stealth mode took the quickest nitro funny car pass honors of the day back to the hotel with his early shut off 6.269 E.T.

Gary Densham sits in the lanes minus his 2007 sponsor Torco Race Fuels, he’ll race in 2008 with Racebricks in place.

Cruz Pedregon spun the tires hard at the throttle on his ‘07 Impala-bodied funny car tuned by Rahn Tobler.  Cruz is also carrying the sponsorship of Agromin soil products found on his sprint car racer and midget dirt cars that ran at the recent Chili Bowl event.

Drag racing veterans Connie Kalitta and Roy Hill watch as Connie’s son Scott readies for his testing pass in his DHL-sponsored flopper.

Scott Kalitta in the family Toyota-bodied funny car ran second quick for the day on his 6.523 pass

Bob Tasca III and his newly sponsored Motorcraft Mustang sitting ready in the lanes.

Ron Capps launches his NAPA Auto Parts-sponsored Dodge, but still after a couple of Friday afternoon passes his Ed McCulloch tuned flopper leaves hard and runs into tire shake coasting on through.

Antron Brown waits in the staging lanes for his shot at the Firebird quarter mile.

Former Pro Stock Bike rider Antron Brown, driver of the David Powers-owned Matco Tools dragster, impressed the onlookers during the opening day of testing at the National Time Trials.  The 16-time NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle winner raced his Lee Beard-tuned Matco-backed rail to the quickest 60-foot elapsed time of the day Friday at Firebird International Raceway.

“It was a good day,” Brown said. “We got all the bugs worked out and hit the track twice. We shook on the opening run, but the second run was a thing of beauty. The (incremental) numbers were great and we’re right on track. Lee (Beard) and the guys did a great job on Friday.”

2007 NHRA Top Fuel Champ Tony Schumacher’s only pass of the day brought dropped cylinders and tire shake at the hit of the throttle, Tony coasted on down the strip to the top end.

With temperatures in the 60s, (chilly for Arizona, but here in Missouri at DRO Central, it sounds like paradise), the stage is set for the second NHRA testing day. Editor Jeff Burk and Darr Hawthorne will be on site at Firebird International Raceway all weekend to provide same day coverage.

Stay tuned for more on the spot coverage as it happens.