Chris Biggerstaff stands her up in Open Competition.

WCHRA Springnationals at Famoso

Words by Tim Rigby and Paul Schmitz
Photos by Paul Schmitz

In the short history of the WCHRA, the early April date hasn’t brought the normal weather conditions for this time of year. In 2007, the WCHRA Springnationals was the site of a Rain Party at the WCHRA tent after the event was rained out before the final round of Qualifying could be completed. In 2008, the total opposite happened, with 94° record breaking temperatures making for a long hot weekend of racing for the WCHRA Racers. This year’s Springnationals would bring a new challenge: winds.

After a breezy Friday T-N-T, Saturday brought a nice day of qualifying with temps in the 70s and left everyone excited about Sundays eliminations. Sunday morning we were greeted with great weather and close racing until just before 2pm. Fifteen minutes later, the weather did a complete 180° turn around, with the wind kicking up to 30 mph with 50 mph gusts! The perfect weather/track conditions we had enjoyed in the first two rounds were history and we were forced to call the event.

The 2009 Springnationals had plenty of positives though, despite the economy, the NHRA national event in Las Vegas, a Heritage event in Fontana and a Super Chevy Show in Arizona all on the same weekend, the WCHRA saw a 20 percent increase in car count (161 entries) and record breaking performances.

FRIDAY T-N-T:

Dustin Lee’s clean little Merc wagon ran in D/Gas.

The Friday test session was a good one, despite the breezy conditions, as 113 entries made their way out to Famoso for the five-hour test session; the highlight of the day was the performance of Doug Sikora in his SBF/Supercharged Outlaw 10.5 Mustang, clocking a 6.88 at 207 mph! It was a personal best speed for the team.

The downside of the test session came from Mod/Prod racer Taro Martinez after running a nice 9.48 at 142. Taro was returning to his pit when his ‘69 Nova developed an electrical short and fire. Taro got out okay, but his Nova was burned pretty badly.

SUNDAY ELIMINATIONS

You could not ask for a better day to race, skies were clear and no wind and we started on time. Of course, the weather can be treacherous, and clear skies one minute can be a sea of storms the next.