James Drew photo

Prior to the Saturday evening Cacklefest, two scurolous characters are perusing the Weekly, Rivero, Fox & Holding top fuel dragster barn door fuel injector barrel valve that was clogged plum full of the nastiest grease they had ever seen.

Supercharger and fuel system whiz Mike Kuhl (left) fixed it up just fine.  “Wavemaker” Don Prieto (right) only gave needed advice—like “clean it out”.

Tim Marshall photo

Legendary chassis builder Steve Plueger and Drag Racing Hall of Fame member Kenny Safford wait for the Saturday night Cacklefest.

Always popular at any event is the wild “Winged Express” Fuel Altered driven by Mike Boyd!

Former Funny Car Champ Bruce Larson readies in a beautifully restored TV Tommy Ivo Top Fuel Dragster for the Saturday evening Cacklefest.

A huge fan favorite is the Saturday night Cacklefest, this year with over sixty-five entrants to the static display.  Here’s the famed “Iron Horse” Top Fuel Dragster.

A big part of the Reunion is reconnecting with old friends.  “King of the Northwest” Jerry Ruth (left) swapped war stories with funny car pioneer Gas Ronda who is featured in the Justice Brothers’ Reunion Spotlight.

Canadian Jirka Kaplan nails another #1 qualifier slot in AA/Gas Supercharged eliminator with his Bearspaw Petroleum-sponsored ‘63 Vette carding a stout 6.420/213.27 MPH run.  Kaplan has the field covered by over two tenths to #2 Mike Leonard’s 6.666 elapsed time.

Grass Valley, California’s Kirk Schubach leaves the Famoso starting line in his ‘67 Camaro landing in the #15 position in A/Gas with his 8.034.

A/Gasser Tommy Schiffilea, out of San Gabriel, CA gets ready to launch his purple ‘40 Willys to a 7.690 on a class index of 7.60.  Schiffilea took the #6 qualifying spot for Sunday eliminations.

Jim Murphy, driving the WW2 Racing Top Fuel Dragster with the chutes out qualified #3 in the tough field running 5.746/257.73 MPH.  Murphy went on to defeat “Sheriff” Jack Harris in the first round of Saturday afternoon eliminations as Harris made his best run of the weekend carding 5.912/219.24 MPH pass.
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In a battle of old school straight axle cars, Larry Fater (left lane) chases friend and racing buddy Paul Soliz in his Plymouth big block Chevy-powered gasser.

Final Round of Top Fuel qualifying - Ed Schwarz in Don Danhof's Dragster

#1 Troy Green 5.722 259.06
2 Brett Harris 5.725 255.46
3 Jim Murphy 5.746 257.73
4 Denver Schutz 5.771 255.97
5 Rick White 5.797 254.45
6 Rick Williamson 5.920 219.99
7 Pete Kaiser 5.980 245.70
8 Shannon Stuart 5.990 216.81
9 Adam Sorokin 6.064 231.95
10 Rick McGee 6.087 237.78
11 Mike McLennan 6.098 229.06
12 Terry Cox 6.250 236.03
13 Mark Malde 6.275 170.48
14 Jack Harris, 6.289 178.39
15 Brendan Murry 6.403 182.14
16 Rick Roger 6.651 240.2
17 Ed Schwarz 12.323 80.16

Texas nitro veteran Vance Hunt leans on the High Speed Motorsports dragster driven by Troy Green, minutes later Green would nail the #1 Qualifying position with a 5.722/259.06 MPH pass that he pedaled the throttle at about 400 feet and motored on through the lights.

During some track prep for the final round of Top Fuel Qualifying six nitro funny car formed a parade in front of the pit side spectator grandstands led by the crew of “McCain’s Bomb Squad” throwing hundreds of yellow Jeg’s High Performance caps into the packed stands.

Nitro veteran Walt Stevens is grinning from ear to ear after completing a pass in the vintage Poacher’s Top Fuel Dragster. Stevens drove cars as varied as the A.M.T. Piranha rear-engined “funny car” in 1966 and is currently part of the High Speed Motorsports crew.

Steven’s was so happy, he yelled, “Hey can I go again?” Then headed over to the dragster being drive by Troy Green to complete his duties.

A small portion of the the Cackle-pits has lots of activity and random fire-ups of nitro cars, there is so much to see besides drag racing!

More Saturday morning exhibition runs found this injected nitro flathead D/Dragster making a 10.07/136.61 MPH pass.

During Saturday morning a few of the vintage dragsters on hand got a chance to push down the historic Famoso quarter mile. 

The beautiful Vagabond top fueler makes it toward the starting line for the push start.

It takes all kinds.  Here’s a Buick nailhead-powered rat rod sporting injectors and a unique set racing headers with Army-issued collectors.

Jack Goodrich, from Laguna Niguel, CA has owned this ‘64 Plymouth Belvedere for about seven years and recently his friend Larry Fater completed a changeover to an altered wheelbase Mopar replica.  Jack is using a stroked, fuel injected, Ray Barton-built 426.  He ran a 11.258/120.57 MPH on his third round wheelstanding pass in A/FX.