Words by Larry Crum
Photos courtesy IHRA

SATURDAY

In front of a standing room only crowd and with near perfect conditions records fell by the wayside in nearly half a dozen categories and champions were crowned in all of Nitro Jam’s professional classes all on opening night at the North American Nitro Jam Saturday, Sept. 11, at New England Dragway.

Three new world records and dozens of track records were set or nearly set Saturday and Mitch King (Top Fuel), Jeff Hamelink (Pro Fuel) and Rick Krafft (Prostalgia Nitro Funny Car) all pulled huge upsets during the opening night of the all-new Nitro Jam in New Hampshire.

“IHRA has one incredible program here and they have quality cars and to come out here and whoop their butts in front of an incredible crowd like this is just any drivers dream come true. What a fantastic night,” said Prostalgia NFC winner Rick Krafft.

In addition to Saturday’s big winners, Bill Evans blew away both ends of the Pro Fuel world record and Steve Nichols came just shy of backing up the Prostalgia Nitro Funny Car elapsed time record on a night where nearly every pass produced a record numbers. Evans ran a series best 5.240 at 283.85 miles per hour to take the mark in both Pro Fuel categories, while Nichols will get two more shots on Sunday at backing up a potential world elapsed time record in Prostalgia NFC.

Additional records were also set in the Top Sportsman and Pro Sled categories in front of the sold out “Night of Fire” crowd.

In Top Sportsman Joe Dunne fired off an incredible 6.181 elapsed time to smash the E.T. record previously held by Steve Drummond, while Kristin Stanley broke the track speed record in Pro Sleds with a blistering 157.47-mph pass in the opening round of eliminations.