Eliminations - Pre-Race Ceremonies

 

Eliminations officially got under way at 11:30 a.m. with several award ceremonies. Above track managers Blake and John Bowser flank the Grand Marshal's Don Prudhomme and Tom McEwen.

Grand Marshall's Tom McEwen and Don Prudhomme along with the winner of the 1st March Meet, Art Chrisman.

Brad Thomson accepted a plaque and jackets as being the first member of the newly established BR Motorsports 5.60 Club.

Thompson holds $500.00 in cash and a plaque for being low ET on both qualifying days.

 

With the first pair of Top Fuel cars sitting behind the water box ready to fire, the winner of the very first March Meet 50 years ago, Art Chrisman did a push start from the top end.

 

Right on time, after the playing of our National Anthem, the first pair of Top Fuel cars fired up at high noon.

 

The second pair out was Bill Dunlap and Brad Thompson. But this was not a "normal" round of racing. Dunlap, in Brendan Murry's car, got in on the break rule due to the tragic loss of John Shoemaker on Saturday. As a tribute to John they decided to make the call but not to race Thompson.

Instead Bill would do a burnout and stop . Karen Oie, using the American flag that Judee Shoemaker used to back up John the last several years, would wave it in honor of John in a mock backup. Dunlap would then idle down the track while we all remembered our fallen comrade. A very touching gesture on the part of the entire Murry crew and a tribute in kind from Thompson.

 

After Dunlap had cleared the track on the topend Thompson fired and did his burnout.

 

As it had been all weekend, Thompson's car was really stout at the hit.

 

 

The orange car from nearby Visalia stopped the clocks with a 5.764 at 253.73. Very impressive but again not good enough to back up the record.

2:22 p.m. Sunday: Still under sunny skies and ideal track conditions round two hit the track.

The second pair out for round two was Brad Thompson and Shannon Stewart. Based on the previous round and overall performance Brad was a heavy favorite and had lane choice.

 

Playing catch up Stewart struck the tires before the 330' mark and watching Thompson truck away he clicked it and coasted to a 8.611 at 98.57.

Thompson legged it to the lights clocking a parts eating 5.742 at 257.21. Brad was running out of rounds to back up the ET record he got a leg on Friday.

 

Within 10 minutes of the pass the car was back in the pits going through extensive maintenance.

 

 

5:19 p.m Saturday afternoon: After a 3 hour gap, the semis were finally ready to fire.

 

Brad Thompson was paired in the semis with a very consistent Rick White.

Thompson won the battle but lost the war with a huge "boom" in the lights. His 5.692 at 240.25 was his second best pass of the weekend but very costly. The crew would really have to thrash (with a lot of outside help) to make the call for the final. White gave it all he had with a losing 5.926 at 245.49.

Thompson's pit was a total thrash after the semi-finals and without the help of the RB Entertainment crew he may not have made the call for the finals.

In spite of the start of Daylight Savings Time, the sun had set by the time the two quickest cars in the world rolled out for what promised to be one hell of a drag race. Doing a lot of engine damage, Brad Thompson had clocked an excellent 5.692 at 240.25 in the semis but that was still over a tenth off of Harris' 5.57. Thompson and crew has a lot of repair work to do and almost didn't make the call for the last race of the weekend. However, no matter how good the Famoso track is during the day, when the sun goes down it has a habit of going away - in a hurry. Such was the case here.

As it should be, the two quickest and fastest drivers in NTF - Jack "The Sheriff" Harris and Brad "Jail Break" Thompson meet for the final. Both knew they were going for the throat and had their cars loaded for bear. They also knew the history of racing under the lights at Bakersfield. So, the only question was - would the track hold their tune-ups.

By virtue of his record setting 5.57 Harris had lane choice and took the favored left side which put Thompson in the right lane for the first time all day.

Thompson got a lead at the hit but Harris was right there in a hurry.

This was a great drag race for about 40 feet' when Thompson started to blaze the tires.

Before half track Harris had traction problems of his own. Not knowing where Thompson was, Jack did a nice pedal job getting the car to the lights with a 6.064 at 239.36. Not pretty by any means but much better than Brad's 13.303 at 61.79.

After the wild final Thompson came up with the quote of the weekend; "I Shot the Sheriff" and left singing, "I Fought the Law and the Law Won".

 

In spite of a runner-up finish and a bunch of damage parts - all in all it was a good weekend for the Thompson & Bless team. The parts will be fixed and there will be another March Meet. Until then Thompson and company will get the car ready for their next race at Bakersfield in May.