A Night Of Fire And Thunder

Words and photos by Mark King

Altereds, Altereds, and more Altereds! Saturday night, June 13, was the annual race of races for the Fuel Altereds at Tucson’s Southwest International Raceway, and they made the best of it. Long smoky burnouts and side-by-side mayhem greeted the standing room only crowd that made the trip out to watch the wildest class in drag racing. Three late model AA/FA's, four Nostalgia Nitro Fuel Altereds, and over 16 blown Alcohol Fuel Altereds were on hand to assault the senses of the appreciative crowd.

In the Late Model Fuel Altered Class, Steve Neese in the "Neese & Knowles" and Mike Boyd in the "Mike Sullivan" split their two meetings with both running in the mid five-second elapsed time range at well over 250 miles per hour. Neese ran a best of 5.645 at 254.33 mph and Boyd checked in with a best of 5.580 at 251.49.

Mac McCord in his "Gorilla" Altered made one attempt at the quarter mile, carding a 6.163 at 237.50.

The first pair of Nostalgia Nitro Fuel Altereds featured Ron Hope in the "Rat Trap" (above left) squaring off against Mike Boyd in the famed "Winged Express" (right) for a best-of-two match race. Each of them took one win apiece with “Rat Trap” running a best of 6.848 at 209.07 while the “Winged Express” ran a best of 7.691 at 169.17.

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The second pair in the Nostalgia Nitro Fuel Altered category pitted Ron Maroney in the “Shark Attack” up against Craig Michael in the “Vegas Heat” (above) with Maroney winning both rounds running a best of 6.392 at 197.02. The “Vegas Heat” ran a best of 6.525 at 208.81.

Also squaring off in a two round match race was Stormy Byrd in the "Revellation" and Dave Gruzen in the "Strange Brew/Morphidite Mouse" with each taking a win. Gruzen ran a best of 7.324 at 183.39 and Byrd ran a best of 7.379 at 181.08.

Danny Levitt outlasted the stout Blown Alcohol Fuel Altered Class when he drove around Dean Oberg in the final round late Saturday night after Oberg’s burst panel blew out. Levitt’s win was no walk in the park considering he had to outrun the likes of Jim Maroney, Dave Ward, Darren Hamby, Tim Brown, Ed Middlebrook, Jerry Hall, Jim Kelso, Andy Dawson, Mike Williams, Mike Maguar, Sheldon Lofgreen, Frank Davidson, and Jeff Morgan.