Words and photos by James Drew
06/21/07
The 2007 AA/FA at Tucson, AZ, brought together a group of booked-in traditional Fuel Altereds and the so-called “Transformers,” which are Nitro Funny Cars with a fuel altered-style body mounted. The “transformer” cars also generally have a longer wheelbase than the traditional short wheelbased Fuel Altereds.
The Championship is decided by running the two quickest cars after two qualifying rounds against each other in a Chicago-style race. Mike Boyd, driving the traditional T-bodied Boyd & Sullivan car set Low E.T. in the first round with a 5.772 at a slowing 202.29 mph due to breaking the rear end on the lap.
Greg Daebelliean, who was the winner of both the 2005 and 2006 Fuel Altered Nationals and was looking to make it a “three-peat,” had his share of trouble at the event. On his first lap his ‘48 Fiat bodied Fast & Sixty spewed oil and Greg had to wrestle the car from guard wall to guard wall on a dismal 8.50 run. Mac McCord brought out his new ‘23T bodied for the first round of eliminations and the “Gorilla" was matched against James Generalao’s Las Vegas-based AA/FA.
McCord beat Generalao (shown) to the finish line, but torched a few pistons in the process, putting his Fuel Altered on the trailer for the rest of the event. Local Tucson racer Mike Hilsabeck in his aptly named “Arizona Thunder” car was the second quickest car of the event recording a 6.482/217.70 mph.