Howard Haight |
Brendan Murry |
Lechtenberg’s semi-final victim, Howard Haight in Butch Blair’s colorful “Fugowie” entry, got back into the final via the break rule to face off against West Coast fan favorite Brendan Murry of San Jose, CA. Murry found the consistency he’s lacked of late at ORP and had his best outing in nearly 12 months qualifying in the third slot.
In the final, Murry was caught napping at the tree. He outran Haight with a 6.012/239.61 but Haight’s 6.049/248.57 was good for the event win. Haight, who was beside himself with the win for car owners Butch and Terry Blair, relocated to Brownsburg from Southern California last year and lives about 1500 yards from the racetrack. In true showmanship fashion…he walked home with the Top Fuel eliminator trophy!
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Bob Godfrey
The highly touted Nostalgia Funny Car exhibition delivered in a big way with nine nitro burning retro funny cars lining up to shake the ground and certainly brought the fans to their feet. After a great qualifying show and opening eliminations Saturday, the floppers got down to serious business Sunday with western states stars Mike Savage, driving the Arizona-based “Speed Sport” 1970 Barracuda, and Bob Godfrey squaring off late in the day for the cash and mantle piece. At the flash of green in the money round, Godfrey left a little late but his career best 6.105 at 234.98 was good enough to cover the 6.406/225.07 posted by Savage.
Joining the nitro burners were no less than six eliminator classes from the NPCA. Pro Comp I (7.00 index) and Pro Comp II (7.50 index) featured a dazzling lineup of altereds, alcohol funny cars, and front engine dragsters of all shapes, sizes and colors. Pro Comp I winner Sean DeWitt drove his altered to the winner’s circle from the number six qualifying spot, taking out the number one qualifier Richard Edwards on a holeshot in the final, 7.051 to the loser’s quicker 7.027.
Pro Comp II belonged to St. Louis, Missouri’s Jon Rhodes, who drove his injected front engined dragster to the title from Saturday’s top qualifying spot. He defeated Bob Lair in the final 7.539/169.42 to 7.499/163.14.
The A/GAS and B/GAS action was a mix of jubilation and heartbreak. A/GAS racer A.J. Schwitchenberg towed his ’63 Corvette 6,400 miles from his home in Wasilla, Alaska, to grab the top qualifying spot, but broke his motor in the process and had to watch Sunday’s elimination rounds. Indianapolis-based Don Rayburn took home the A/GAS spoils in his bright red ’72 Gremlin running a 7.779 in the final to beat number one qualifier Mike Cooper.
Richard Edwards and Sean DeWitt