The Nostalgia Funny Car (Prostalgia) class had the largest number of entries and they were the stars of the show. This event marked the first return to IHRA competition for AA/FC racer Paul Romine since he and members of his Top Fuel dragster teams were put on double-secret probation by then IHRA owner Bill Bader almost a decade ago. Romine is a three-time IHRA Top Fuel Champ winning his titles when IHRA Top Fuel racing was an open competition class and had cars that were capable of running with the NHRA cars 

Romine and his team, consisting of tuner Mike Cavalieri and crew John Bullard, Jeff McGuire and Dwayne Parsons, made the most of Romine’s return to the IHRA by winning the overall Fuel Funny Car title and the Championship points lead.

Mark Sanders, driving his ”Mr. Explosive” 1967 Nova tuned by son Jake, got the win in the first AA/FC final round Friday night.  (Steve Gruenwald photo)

Despite some career performances during the two-day event from AA/FC racers Mark Sanders, Peter Gallen, and Mark McIntire, the racing was less than stellar with many singles, double-digit ET’s and oil downs during the Friday and Saturday shows. That said, both the Friday and Saturday final rounds were classic.

Friday night’s Midwest vs West showdown between  Mark Sanders and Paul Romine gave the sparse crowd their money’s worth when both cars recorded sub-six-second times. The win went to Sanders, who had towed almost 4,000 miles from his shop in Washington State for this race. Sanders left first and steadily drove away from Romine (from Indianapolis), putting up an excellent time of 5.873/242.28 that covered Romine’s losing 5.941/240.12.

The Saturday Nitro Funny Car show was run in front of a PBIR capacity crowd. The fans were treated to the kind of action and excitement that nitro funny cars are famous for.  Explosions, five-second passes and the best ever IHRA Nostalgia Funny Car pass.

Although Gallen didn’t get the win on either days of the race, he did manage to grab Romine’s title as the quickest and fastest AA/FC East of the Mississippi with a stellar 5.72 /250.00 lap on Saturday.  (Adam Cranmer photo)

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