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STORY PHIL HUTCHISON

IMAGES P. HUTCHISON AND COURTESY THE RACERS

Sunday was Eliminations Day for this year’s California Hot Reunion at famed Famoso Dragstrip. Fans packed the Bakersfield track travelling from as far away as Norway, Sweeden, the United Kingdom and all over Europe. The fans were not disappointed.

The rain on Friday pushed final qualifying until Saturday afternoon which is normally round one of most all the classes. With Saturday’s first round scrubbed, the track and the Heritage organization were forced to run the entire show on Sunday. It was after the sun went down that the Pro class champs were decided and later, during the completion  of the Sportsman racing, an late night oildown stopped the racing for the day and Monday morning was scheduled for the competition of their classes.

FUNNY CAR

Nathan Sitko was the Big Winner in Nostalgia Funny Car as he took both the event win and NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series title. In what was a huge Nostalgia Funny Car field with nearly two dozen cars. Sitko deep in the points race, qualified the Hodgson Racing Pacemaker Bubble Up Firebird in the #2 spot with a 5.522.

Defending Hot Rod Heritage champ Shane Westerfield driving the green Austin/O’Brien Racing Bardahl entry from Tacoma WA. had the Camaro in the fifth qualifying spot with a 5.56. 

With the points so close at the last race of the year it was Westerfield leading the chase with 461 points and Sitko a tick behind with 439, which driver who went the furthest in eliminations would be crowned World Champ.

Both Westerfield and Sitko won their first round matchups but things went south for Westerfield in R2 as he was racing Jeff Arend’s Firebird and left -0.019 too soon ending his day and putting a crimp in his chances of a repeat in 2026.

Sitko beat Mike Peck’s Instigator Camaro in his R2 race and in R3 took out Todd Plate in the “Problem Child” Camaro to set up the final. By now Sitko mathematically won the 2026 title but there was still a final to run. And it was against the quickest car at Bakersfield.

Tucson AZ racer Jimmy Kelso put his orange Speed Sport Camaro on the pole with a world record 5.484 and earlier defeated Ryan Horan, crowd favorite Eily Stafford, and Jeff Arend running high 5.40’s and low 5.50’s. Sitko had the Bubble Up car solidly in the 5.50 zone and it was a toss-up in the finals.

Sitko had the better reaction time and by half-track it was obvious that Kelso’s Camaro did not have the horses to beat Sitko and clicked it to a slowing 6.119 to the winning 5.558 @ 232.31 of Sitko.

After the win at Famoso, Sitko said “Holy smokes! What a team! “

“So grateful! California Hot Rod Reunion winner and NHRA Heritage Series Champions on one weekend!!”

“Big thank you to all our sponsors, without them we wouldn’t be able to compete at the level we need to.”

TOP FUEL

Hilton from Ohio, lost the battle but won the war taking his 5th NHRA Heritage Top Fuel title

The Hot Rod Heritage Top Fuel championship was also up for grabs with defending 2025 champ Tyler Hilton and veteran racer Pete Kaiser in the hunt. Unlike Funny Car, all Hilton had to do is put the Great Expectations III fueler in the show and win a round to claim his historic 5th Heritage title.

But it wasn’t a slam dunk for Hilton. After a violent crash at Redding Motorsports Park in CA. completely destroyed his primary race car, the team was able to return for the 2026 NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series finale in Bakersfield because their previous car purchase from Tony Bartone included an unused twin spare chassis. His father, Bobby Hilton, transferred all the components from the wrecked dragster onto this spare Bartone chassis to construct a brand-new car just in time for the event.

“So we put this complete new car together,” Bobby Hilton said. “I took everything off the original car: fuel tank, oil tank, everything, throttle, brake handle, clutch pedal, everything, and built this brand new car.”

Tyler  Hilton’s 2026 Nostalgia Top Fuel Trophy

Hilton put the Cincinnati OH car in the third slot with a 5.802 but it was another Tyler who was getting the early ink in qualifying. Tyler Hester from Visalia CA was setting the pace with a 5.708 in his Donovan powered dragster.

Kaiser from Pleasant Hill CA. had his dragster in the #2 spot with a 5.72 and defeated Bret Williamson and recently crowned TF champ Hilton in the semis to meet Hester in the finals. Hester, who had been the class of the field setting Low ET in R1 with a 5.694 over former champ Adam Sorokin in his swoopy Chevy powered car and Frank McBee’s Jr’s red dragster in his semifinal race.

Kaiser, near lane, was second off the line and second to the stripe losing to Hester in the finals at Famoso

At the green, Hester got off the line first and won with a motor exploding 5.832 to Kaiser’s losing 5.897.

“We started the weekend off strong,” said Hester after the Famoso win.  “Going to the top in Q1 with a 5.70. After that we had our hopes up that we would have a hod rod all weekend long.”

“Next came up Q2 and Q3 where we fought tire shake and parts failures. Good thing things went our way in Q1 and it held on for the number one qualifying spot.”

“Come E1 we were definitely confident, but you never know what can happen. After beating Adam Sorokin in the first-round, things just started to roll our way. We faced off against Frank McBee in E2 and beat him on a holeshot.”

 “In the final round we were against Pete Kaiser we liked our odds but again it’s drag racing, so you never know. When I left the starting line the car felt great and everything was going to plan. I never saw Pete in the other lane.”

“Coming up on the finish line the car went up in flames and it was just a (hold on cowboy) type of situation until I got it stopped. I get out of the car and was unsure if we had won until I heard our crew coming down the return road screaming and yelling that we had just won!”

“Thank you to all our sponsors, crew, friends and family that continue to make this possible. We don’t get to run as often as some other teams do, but when we run we run hard.

FUEL ALTERED

Brandon Seraphine, near lane, won a close on with Vince Karsetter running 6.044 to the losing 6.065 of Karsetter

AA/FA was an interesting class to say the least. The rules state that a 6.00 flat index will be used to qualify and race during eliminations. With nine nitro breathing beasts at Famoso, the six second index seemed to be a suggestion  and not a rule. More than one Altered blew past the six second zone deep into the 5’s and although qualified, were put at the end of the qualifying list after the first qualifying session. The second session Saturday morning made more sense as the field was set with all the racers respecting the index.

Australian Greg Leahy driving the Plan A car of Johnny West from Chino Valley AZ improved on his earlier 6.11 to a right on 6.008 for #1 and Chris Bates Jr. in the Panic Bantam’s 6.021 for second spot.

Drama took over in the first round when Bates was up against James Day in the Burkholder Bros. Fiat. Bates’ team couldn’t get the motor to turn over, and Day was told he would be on a bye. Day did a burnout, and the car went silent down track. The officials gathered around and discussed rules and since Bates was told he was done and Day was getting the bye, both racers were disqualified and only three winners would go on to R2.

Leahy won over Rodney Flournoy, Brandon Seraphine from Corona CA beat Mathew Leonard and Vince Karsetter from Arizona took out Mark Whynaught.

With the odd number of winners, Karsetter got the competition bye, and Leahy was up against Seraphine. It should have been a super close race with both Leahy and Seraphine running nearly identical times. Seraphine ran a 6.083 to Leahy’s better 6.067.

Had Leahy had a decent light he might have won but with a 0.189 RT to Seraphine’s 0.044, it wasn’t close. Seraphine had nearly a tenth and half advantage and ended up clicking early to a 190 MPH run to keep his Bantam from running under the index.

In the finals under the California nightfall, both Seraphine and Karsetter had their wild cars fired up and ready. Neither driver had a great light, but Seraphine was off a bit quicker than Karsetter and on the top end it was Seraphine’s 6.044 edging out the 6.065 of Karsetter. Seraphine’s speed was 193.05 MPH to Karsetter’s booming 253.37.

PRO MOD

The black Vette of Kalich had the better ET and won the Pro Mod portion of the CHRR show

A Pro Mod field was also part of the weekend’s fun. All racing was contested on an 1/8 mile so quick three second times were a needed. Leading Sunday’s eliminations was the ’68 Camaro of Andy Kouerinis from Pacifica CA with a 3.769. The blown ’59 Corvette of John Durden was 2nd with a 3.800.

In the final it was the black Corvette of Josh Kalich from Aromas CA. against the turbocharged  ’68 Camaro of Troy Baugh. Kalich had the better light and ET running a winning 3.807 to the losing 3.931 of Baugh

CIFCA

Reigning  CIFCA champ James Maher from Wittier CA took his winning ’84 Ford Tempo to a Bakersfield title over the cool as hell Fiat Topolino of Rick Alevardo from Wheatland CA.

It was a battle of #1 qualifier Maher and Alvardo who qualified in the #6 spot with a 7.194 on the unique 7.10 index.

Maher who has his car dialed in won the race with a 7.198 as Alevardo  ran too quick running a 7.088 on a 7.10 dial in the black Fiat.

“A lot of hard work, dedication, and memories in one picture. This represents countless late nights in the shop, thousands of miles on the road, long weekends at the racetrack, the challenges, the setbacks, and the determination to keep getting better,” Maher said.
“When I started this journey back in 2017, I had no idea just how much we would accomplish.”

PRO COMP

It was a quick show in Pro Comp as only a handful of cars were on hand. Winning on a bye run was Kin Bates Sr. from Anderson CA. in his U.S. Airforce injected dragster. His competition, the blown altered of NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car champ Sean Bellemeur from Placentia CA could not fire giving Bates the easy win.

 

After the event, much of the success had to go to Tim Huddleston and Blake Bowser’s crew along with the NHRA staff. But a lot of the credit has to go to Cindy Gibbs, her pop Steve, her boys and her gang. 

Looking back to the event after a day of reflection, Cindy said,” All I can say is, wow…we hit another home run!”

“My goal this year was to allow my dad the freedom to just enjoy the event, which he never gets to do…and I think we were able to do that.”

“Being back at Famoso puts us on a bigger stage, and in some ways it’s more stressful, but in others it’s more manageable because I can now focus on Cacklefest and our Honorees. From the feedback we’re getting, this year’s Cacklefest was one of our best ever and that makes me feel really happy for our participants. The amount of time money and effort that the owners and crews put into that one weekend really can’t be measured. It’s all about passion for them, love of the sport, remembering the “good old days”. 

     

“I’m pretty sure everyone left with a smile on their face Saturday night.”

“It’s really important that I thank everyone who helped me out this year…we have such a great group of people who understand our vision and want to see this thing continue. The love is apparent and what keeps us going.”