Top Fuel Championship Showdown Will Headline CHRR

While a lot of eyes have been focused on the Countdown to the Championship point battles that are raging in the NHRA Full Throttle series, there is another dramatic, hard-fought battle for the crown that is playing out in the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series. The Nostalgia Top Fuel Dragster point’s clash has been an interesting battle since its opening round last March, and it has kept their fans continually guessing as to who will come out on top.

With a limited number of events in which to collect points during the 2011 season, every round and every race has held added importance. One mistake or one missed event and a team’s chances of finishing at the top of the standings were in jeopardy. As a result positions in the point’s standings have swung faster than the pendulum on a fully wound eight day clock.

The season started out at the March Meet in Bakersfield with the San Diego-based team of Neal & White looking like a car that could sweep the series. Their performance and consistency had the other teams in awe. When Rick White reeled off a string of 5.70s to defeat perennial point’s contender Brett Harris for the win many thought Neal & White would turn the season into a runaway contest. Such, it turned out, was not the case.

By the end of the second event, the Nightfire Nationals in Boise, Harris had wrestled away the lead by winning the race. With his runner-up in California and a win in Idaho he moved to the front of the pack after White stumbled and fell in the early rounds in Boise. Harris was starting to assume an odds-on favorite role based on his late round consistency and reputation for finding his way to the winner’s circle even when he isn’t the quickest car on the grounds. The big red Nitro Thunder machine from Utah was definitely on a roll.

When the series set up camp in Sacramento for the Governor’s Cup race in September a new name was making his presence known. Santa Rosa’s Jim Murphy had been fighting clutch issues since early in the season. The problem had forced him to work his way back from an uncharacteristic low of 4th in point’s and a four round deficit out of the lead. However, thanks to some determined testing Murphy rose to the occasion in Sacramento and swept the race by collecting the maximum 118 points for being the winner and number one qualifier. Just as important to Murphy’s cause was the fact that Harris fell victim to Terry Cox in the semi-final round and White had exited at the hands of Harris a round earlier. Rather than the Governors Cup bringing the point’s race into sharper focus, the picture was instead changing by the round.

Cox is perhaps the darkhorse in this contest. Over the last year the sleek full-bodied Cheetah car from Sacramento has struggled. Engine woes have kept the Cox-Wilson-Ninnis team from attracting much in the way of attention or points. That seems to be a thing of the past as they have now found new reliability, and even better than that they have become the mile-per-hour car of the class. Terry Cox has run consistently over 250 MPH in almost every session in the past few races and this newfound power has earned the team some late round finishes. With this resurgence, which produced a close runner-up finish to Murphy in Sacramento, the team has garnered enough points to move up the standings into 4th place and mathematically within sight of the championship. If crew chief Dale Adams can get the starting line tune up to equal his finish line charge, the Cheetah is going to be one quick animal.

Disappointingly now out of mathematical range to win the championship is New York’s Tony Bartone. The Bartone Brothers and crew chief Steve Boggs were an early season pick as the car to watch this year. Unfortunately, due to commitments with their alcohol funny car, they were unable to return for the rescheduled rained-out Bakersfield event, and then missed the Sacramento race altogether, causing the team to suffer an insurmountable loss in points. In between those two events T-Bone reinforced those who had belief in him by recording the season’s quickest elapsed time (5.57) and a runner-up finish in Boise. If not in it for the championship anymore, Bartone can still place high in the standings with a good showing at Bakersfield. Needless to say all eyes will be on Bartone as one of the biggest potential spoilers for the four cars still in the hunt for the championship.

So, as we enter the final event of the season, the 20th Annual California Hot Rod Reunion, the chase for the championship stacks up thusly; Harris leads with 291 points. The championship is his to win or lose. Murphy now sits second with 247 points or just slightly over two rounds behind Harris. Murphy has momentum on his side. Rick White is right there on Murphy’s heels only a single point behind (246). If either Murphy or White can go two rounds further than Harris in eliminations the qualifying position points will become all important in determining the 2011 champion. Rounding out the list of those that can’t be counted out, Terry Cox (182) is 109 points out from Harris. That may be a tall challenge for Cox, but sneaking into second or third place isn’t that unlikely should Murphy or White falter.

As we have seen before anything can happen and often does. Each qualifying session and elimination round will have serious ramifications on the Nostalgia Top Fuel Championship battle. One thing for sure, the 16 car field will be packed with contenders and spoilers, all anxious to be standing tall on Sunday night. If you like good racing that is filled with drama you want to be on hand all three days of the California Hot Rod Reunion.

Top Fuel qualifying for the NHRA California Hot Rod Racing Series at Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield begins on Friday, October 21 and continues Saturday, October 22nd. First round of final eliminations follow qualifying on Saturday, and concludes on Sunday, October 23. You can purchase tickets or obtain more information on the NHRA Motorsports Museum’s website at: http://museum.nhra.com or the track’s website www.famosoraceway.com