Results compiled by Kay Burk
Photos by Ron Lewis and Gary Nastase

The first modern-day four-wide drag race took place at Bruton Smith’s zMAX Dragway in Concord, NC. Whether it is the wave of the future or just a blip on the radar of drag racing history remains to be seen.

Our photographers had plenty of challenges as they tried to capture images of four cars that just would not all stay together for an easy shot after they left the line. Which cars to concentrate on? The right two lanes, the left two lanes, or the leaders (and hope they weren’t the two outside lanes)?  It was hard for them to keep an eye on all four lanes, and with two cars getting eliminated in each round, there were fewer opportunities for some cars (and their sponsors) to get time in front of the crowd and cameras.

If the photographers shot from one side of the track, the car on the far side was sometimes out of focus or blocked by two or three other cars. In order to get all four cars in the same photo, each car was considerably smaller than if only two cars were in the shot. In some of the night qualifying shots from the rear, we just couldn’t figure out who was in the photo. But enough whining about our problems, on to the action!

Even though the race format shortened eliminations by one round per class, rain delayed the completion of the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals until Monday, March 29. The grandstands, which hadn’t been full on Sunday, were even less so as fans went back to work on Monday.

For this four-wide event, the pairings were qualifiers 1, 16, 8 & 9; 2, 15, 7 & 10; 3, 14, 6 & 11; 4, 13, 5 & 12. The two slower cars were eliminated in each round.