Words by Darr Hawthorne
Photos by Darr Hawthorne, Tim Marshall and James Drew
4/23/2007
A large crowd of nitro and nostalgia drag racing fans bought their way into the inaugural Nostalgia Nitro Shootout at Auto Club California Dragway in Fontana, CA, this past weekend. They got a full dose of nitro burning race cars as well as Nostalgia as twelve nitro floppers and five front-motored Top Fuel competitors were on hand along with a full NE-1 field, which also included some nitro burning race cars. The event was limited to just 150 cars, which allowed for an almost always-open test lane. As a result many testers were hot-lapping their cars.
The one-day event was staged in an effort to bring out local nostalgia racers in selected classes for a test and tune as well as provide spectators a full Nostalgia Eliminator 1 competition. “Chicago-style” Top Fuel and Nitro Funny Car shootouts were added to bring back those long distant memories of local SoCal Top Fuel and Funny Car shows.
Friday rains caused some last minute water clean up from the Dragway crew on the top-end on Saturday, so the Funny Cars staged an Orange County International Raceway-like show at the starting line prior to the start of racing. All of the fiberglass-bodied fuel coupes lined up in a classic formation that was reminiscent of the good old days of Saturday drag shows all over the country.
Funny car qualifying saw Steve Romanazzi lead the field in his Donnie Couch-tuned “Warrior” ’79 Vega which recorded low ET of the round with a 6.327 at 224.36 MPH pass.
In a scene again reminiscent of any OCIR Manufacturer’s Meet, DRO Nostalgia columnist, part time driver and full time chassis builder, Jeff Utterback, between the pipes of the Pisano & Matsubara tribute Vega lined up against Del Worsham in his ’77 Mustang Blue Max replica. Utterback’s 6.345 at 205.10 mph took the number two qualifying position and the round win over Worsham’s 6.350 at 220.19 mph on Del’s first pass in the car this year.
San Diego’s Rick White topped the Top Fuel sheets with his off-the-trailer 6.125 shutting off at 192.91 mph. He was followed by Adam Sorokin driving Brian Van Dyke’s RB Entertainment dragster to an off pace 6.843. Dan Schrokosch led the Nostalgia Eliminator bracket from San Marcos, CA, in his Chevy-powered ’89 Tuttle-chassis dragster on the 7.60-indexed eliminator.