Drag Racing Action Online

Images Phil Hutchison

The final race of  the NHRA Heritage series bookended the 2004 season with the champs not decided until the late rounds at the  2024 California Hot Rod Reunion presented by Good Vibrations Motorsports.at Famoso Dragway in Bakersfield CA.

The Reunion originally a one-time event in 1992 to honor racers from the golden age of drag racing, the California Hot Rod Reunion grew over the years  With years of growth, management of the race started to go sideways and for the past few years, what made the event unique, went away. Cackle cars stopped attending and for a while, things were looking bad for the historic event.

Early in 2024, the NHRA and the NHRA Motorsport Museum agreed to let Famoso Dragstrip and President Blake Bowser take control of the event. The first thing Bowser and his crew did was to return the event back to its original name after last year’s  Wally Parks Nostalgia Nationals. Bowser  was hands on throughout the weekend showing his seriousness but Bowser has an uphill battle getting the event back to the earlier success, but if 2024 is any indication, he has the wheels turned in the right direction.

“I think that was the challenge that was faced before with NHRA and the museum: transitioning it from a gathering into a drag race,” Bowser said. “Now we’re trying to figure out how we can have a drag race yet take some time to slow down a little bit and celebrate our legends.” 

TOP FUEL

In Top Fuel, defending series champ Tyler Hilton needed to go rounds to keep the trophy in his hometown of Cincinnati Ohio.

 But Hilton wasn’t sitting back and letting it happen as he put the Great Expectations dragster in the #1 spot with a 5.670 with Pete Kaiser #2 with a 5.690.

With the Tulsa Ok. race scrubbed earlier in the season, the 2024 NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series made the decision to not cancel but include the Tulsa race at Bakersfield. Giving the Top Fuel racers an additional race to claim points. 

 Kaiser from Pleasant Hill CA.  had an outside chance of overtaking Hilton and won the Tulsa part of the weekend. Unfortunately for Kaiser, his final round opponent was Hilton who garnered enough points to claim the 2024 title with little more than staging his Great Expectations car in round 1.

Round One went to script with all the top qualifiers moving on to R2.

In the Semis Hilton defeated Bryan Hall from Rio Oso CA with a Low ET of the event 5.649 @ 257.43 in and Kaiser took out a red lighting Tyler Hester with a matching 5.649 setting up a titanic final.

It wasn’t quite the race the fans or Kaiser, near lane, would have liked as Kaiser left 0.102 too soon handing Hilton the HRR win and the 2024 Hot Rod Heritage title.

Hilton gets a little air on the top end after his win over Hall

After the Tulsa finals Hilton said, “We would’ve had to really mess up, but we kind of held our own there and got to the [Tulsa] final round, and I think we got it sewed up.”

FUNNY CAR

Nostalgia Funny Car had its own drama with late season driver swaps and the championship on the line.

Multi time FC champ Bobby Cottrell was replaced as the driver of Bucky Austin’s car in August and NHRA Alcohol Funny car driver Shane Westerfield  put behind the wheel. Cottrell had a huge 114-point lead at the time and was tapped to drive the Jim Broome-owned Speed Sport flopper to defend his title. 

Like Hilton in Top Fuel, Cottrell needed to go rounds to remain #1 in 2024 and that’s what he did.

Round two had Drew Austin, near lane, coming up short 5.816 to a winning 5.742 of  Cottrell. 

After a Saturday night first round which saw Westerfield and Nathan Sitko go out early. Cottrell won the war but lost the battle as he kicked the rods out of the Speed Sport Camaro in his semifinal round win over Mike Peck’s Camaro.

 Geoff Monise, also in the mix going into the last race of the season , lost his semi final round race putting Cottrell #1 for 2024.

But there was still a final round to run.

The Speed Sport team along with fellow drivers and crew members thrashed in the pits in an attempt to race Jeff Arend in the finals. After an hour of swapping out parts, the Camaro could not make the final round. It wasn’t for a lack of trying.

 

 

Arend, knowing he had the race wrapped up, stagged his ’78 Trans Am and posted a 5.946 at a shutting of 179.17 MPH.

NHRA’s  Brian Lohnes and 2024 champ Cottrell on the top end. 

AA/FA

Karstetter, far lane, had the car to beat all weekend, and nobody did 

The AA/FA show, always a crowd favorite did not disappoint with 10 cars on the grounds to qualify for the eight car show. The rules are simple, run a s quick as you can and not run below the six second index. And win.

After qualifying was finished, Queen Creek AZ driver Vince Karstetter put the Johnny West’s  Plan A ’23 T car in the top spot with a 6.077. Holding down the bump was Bob Godfrey with a 7.016.

Karstetter ran a 6.10 and a 6.149 on his way to finals. On the other side of the ladder, Pete Peterson from Trabuco Canyon CA in his Wanderer Fiat ran consistent 6.076 and a 6.167 to meet Karstetter for the gold.

Both drivers were off the line with nearly identical reaction times, but Karstetter ran a dead on 6.008 to Peterson’s close 6.14 for the Famoso win.

Special Awards

Diane Hilton, mother of Top Fuel champion was awarded the 2024 Drag Cartoons Pete Millar Award. The award the 13th annual is given to a person who embodies the spirit of drag racing heritage.

The Stith Printing Best Back Up Girls (BUGS) was won by Lori Morgan and Stephanie Rea. The team used the famous wrestlers Hulk Hogan and Randy “Macho Man” Savage as models for their unique Halloween costumes.