Harris Grabs Points Lead

Utah’s Brett Harris and his Posse used a win at the Boise Nightfire Nationals to vault their way into the lead of the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series point’s chase. The Kaysville, Utah driver took full advantage of years of knowledge accumulated by both himself and his father about the Idaho track to pull off a repeat win and collect a healthy dose of valuable Heritage Series points. The win moved Harris, the 2009 series champion, from second in the standings coming into the race to the lead position.

Rick White, who held the lead coming into the Boise event, was displaced from the top spot into second when he dropped a 6.09 to 5.89 semifinal round contest to Harris. White now trails by a slim 20 point margin, but he and partner Chuck Neal, who have finished in the top 5 the past three years, fully expect to be in the thick of the battle for the title at the end of the year.

Vaulting all the way from seventh to third in the points standings was Tony Bartone in the Bartone Brothers car out of New York. T-bone used the number one qualifying position, and a runner-up finish, to garner enough points to now sit just 81 points behind Harris, and 61 behind White. However, the strong East Coast contender is susceptible to sliding backwards again as Bartone may miss the next Heritage Series race due to a conflict in schedules with his prime goal of chasing the NHRA Alcohol Funny Car championship where he currently sits second.

Losing a spot on the list was the usually consistent car of Jim Murphy. Murphy lost his first qualifying run in Boise when he accidentally triggered the automatic shutoff device while staging the car. His next two qualifying runs were then plagued by tire smoke which landed him in the final qualifying position. That put him up against the number one qualifier in the first round. Murphy managed to get the car back on track for eliminations and put up a valiant fight, but still dropped the close contest to Bartone. Jim now sits 85 points out of the lead.

Coming all the way from outside of the top 10 to the number 5 position is the Dale Adams-led Cheetah IV and driver Terry Cox. Cox’s car has suffered from a fuel delivery malady for the past year which now appears to be resolved. He held top speed throughout most of the event, but fell in eliminations when a problem starting the car wounded the late model-style powerplant. Cox is undoubtedly licking his chops as the next Heritage race is on his home turf in Sacramento.

This time of the year is harvest time for farmers, and that includes Fresno’s Denver Schutz. The Schutz & Cullen entry wasn’t able to attend the Boise race, but it only cost them two positions in the points chase. They fell from 4th to 6th.

Mendy Fry came into the Boise event with no points to her credit. That was because she wasn’t assigned to the driving chores on Mike Fuller’s car until after the first race of the year. Following Boise she had enough points to be ranked 7th which put her in a tie for the position with Rick McGee, who wasn’t in Boise.

Rounding out the top 10 are Howard Haight in the Mr. Boston car and Bill Dunlap in Bob Richardson’s Circuit Breaker. Haight dropped three positions in the standings while Dunlap dropped two. Neither of these teams made the trek to Boise so their positions are based solely on points gathered at Bakersfield. Hopefully we will see both of these cars back in action soon.

The Top Ten in Nostalgia Top Fuel Dragster standings following Boise are (unofficial):

Brett Harris - 214

Rick White - 194

Tony Bartone - 133

Jim Murphy - 129

Terry Cox, - 86

Denver Schutz, - 74

Mendy Fry/Rick McGee - tie at 54

Howard Haight - 53

Bill Dunlap - 33

The penultimate round of the Heritage Series is the Governors Cup Championship in Sacramento on September 16th & 17th. Qualifying will start on Friday evening with eliminations on Saturday evening.