Words by Mark Westfall
Photos by James Drew and Mark Westfall

Heavy winds blew through the Valley of the Sun and ended elimination shortly after they began on Sunday, May 2, and while no winners were officially crowned at the first ever Lucas Oil Drag Boat Series event, all who attended had to leave Firebird Raceway feeling that drag boat racing is on its way to never-before-seen levels.

Forrest Lucas was on hand the entire weekend to take a first hand look at the new era of drag boat racing and must have been impressed by the new organization under the guidance of LODBS President Ken Dollar. A new state of the art fleet of LODBS safety boats manned by the best rescuers in the sport oversaw the on-water action. The new LODBS control tower and hospitality area sat at mid track, and the new timing system lined Firebird Lake. A new LED scoreboard sat on the island directly in front of the main grandstand.

After a smooth, safe day of test and tune on Friday, Saturday’s qualifying action would be the first real test for the all new LODBS staff and equipment. While not perfect, the first official day of LODBS action was a huge success. The opener is typically light on the boat count and three rounds of Sportsman and two rounds of professional qualifying were easily run off. The LODBS leaders called the drivers meeting at day’s end, and warned that strong winds were forecast, and to be ready for a Sunday schedule change.

The race day forecast appeared to be spot on, and Dollar was forced into a very tough decision: Hold off and attempt to run the advertised schedule (allowing the majority of fans to arrive) or call the boats to the lanes early, and get as much done as possible. The latter was the difficult choice and Top Fuel was in the lanes at 9 a.m. and ready for round one. The decision would ultimately prove to be the correct one.

Unfortunately, only the early arriving fans witnessed the highlight of the event, Darryl “Madd Maxx” Erlich in Eddie Knox’s “Problem Child” earth shaking 3.68 at 240-mph pass on the 1000-foot Top Fuel Hydro course. The steadily increasing winds ended the inaugural event shortly after Top Fuel, Pro Mod and Top Alcohol Hydro’s first hits, and the disappointed fans and racers would have to wait until another day.