Despite a number of new records, the biggest news of the night came in the form of a trio of upset victories in Nitro Jam’s professional categories. In Top Fuel Mitch King picked up his first career victory over legend Bruce Litton, while Jeff Hamelink earned his second career Ironman trophy over Pro Fuel point leader Michael Manners and Rick Krafft won for the first time in Prostalgia Nitro Funny Car over point leader Steve Nichols.

And at the end of the night no one was happier than Krafft.

Driving the legendary “Chicago Fire” Corvette, Krafft has had his share of woes this season with a number of engine problems and car malfunctions, but on Saturday night it all came together for the Mike Fraser owned team as Krafft placed one of drag racing’s most recognizable names in victory lane for the first time.

Coming into the weekend with just four round wins all season and a career best pass just over six seconds, Krafft produced back-to-back runs in the 5.80s and took down the hottest driver in Prostalgia Nitro Funny Car in the final to earn his first career Ironman trophy.

“We have really struggled this year. We have had goofy engine problems and handling problems that have kept us down,” Krafft said. “We struggled through this crazy stuff and this crew worked their butts off and this was the result.”

Krafft (Chesterton, Indiana) ran a career best 5.857/241.45 in the final, besting Steve Nichols’ 6.200/237.67 in a race that wasn’t decided until the final few feet.

“We had some friendly words with Steve before the run. He is a great guy and a great racer, but when you challenge his territory he doesn’t back down,” Krafft said. “I knew he was going to try to kick our butts because he is pretty much king around here so to get it done against that team is amazing.”

Coming off of his worst outing of the year two weeks ago in Maryland, the win was a much needed boost for the “Chicago Fire” team as Krafft tries to put the classic squad back on the map as one of the top contenders in Nitro Jam’s newest hit class.

“The ‘Chicago Fire’ has been around almost 30 years, but through the past few years it ran as a Fuel Altered,” Krafft said. “When we got the invite by IHRA we turned it into a funny car and have had nothing but problems. Honestly we figured we would go out there and run just as well as we had been, but nothing like that happened.

“Hopefully after tonight we have finally figured this thing out. The ‘Chicago Fire’ is back.”