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THE TRACK – PALM BEACH INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY

I went to this track way back when it was the old Moroso Motorsports Park. Since the renovation a few years ago I’ve been back to PBIR quite a few times and it’s become one of my favorite drag strips.  All concrete, smooth as can be, and the location doesn’t hurt either as the weather in Palm Beach County allows the track to remain open all winter.  It’s so nice that most of the NHRA pro teams have used it for pre-season testing and a couple of dozen nitro teams are there for a week of testing as I type this.  Jason Rittenberry and his staff have done a great job with the place and I just can’t wait to go back there.

TOP FUEL DRAGSTER

With only two T/F cars on the property - Bruce Litton’s Lucas Oil car and the Lagana family with their new sponsorship from Service Central – it was basically a two round match race both nights.  Bobby Lagana drove to four round wins over Litton and in the process ran over 320 mph all four passes, pretty impressive runs for the family-owned  team. 

PROSTALGIA FUNNY CARS

The eight-car field included a couple of newcomers to the Nitro Jam, Paul Romine from Indianapolis and Mark “Mr. Explosive” Sanders, who towed almost 4,000 miles from Washington to Florida -- probably the longest cross-country trip you can make. After the dust cleared Sanders took the Friday night win and Romine won on Saturday. 

Friday night Sanders ran a very stout 5.82 at 242 mph while Romine’s 5.88 at 235 placed them in the final round where Sanders cranked out a 5.87 at 242 for the win over Romine’s respectable 5.94 at 240. 

On Saturday Peter Gallen fired the shot heard around the world by running a jaw-dropping 5.729 at 250.37 in the opening round to get a trip to the final round.  Romine’s 5.81 beat out Mike McIntire’s 5.89 for the chance to race Gallen in the championship round.  The track got a little slippery and Romine and his “Man O’ War” team adapted to the conditions and his 6.01 outdistanced Gallen’s game 6.14.

A little bit of excitement happened during the first round when John Dunn banged a blower and launched the “Dunn & Gone” body skyward to the delight of the almost capacity crowd.  The body floated back to earth, landing on the track with minor damage, and should be able to race another day.

DOUBLE-A FUEL ALTEREDS

This was the most anticipated class of the new 2011 Nitro Jam and, boy oh boy, did they put on a great show.  With names from the ’70s like “Rat Trap”, “Super Nanook”, “Pure Hell” and “Pure Heaven”it was a blast from the past. Chris Bennett driving the “Pure Heaven” car swept the Friday night action winning the race and setting Low ET and Top Speed at 6.03 at 230 mph over Jason Richey driving Rich Guasco’s “Pure Hell”, which ran a career best of 6.19. 

For me the highlight of Friday’s action was when the “Super Nanook” car swapped lanes in the first round right after the tree and driver Ron Maroney did a masterful job of driving down the opposite lane behind Bennett in “Pure Heaven” without hitting anything.

Maroney and Ron Hope in the “Rat Trap” met in the Saturday night final  with Maroney redeeming  himself, winning the AA/FA title on Saturday night with Bennett claiming the Low ET and Top Speed marks at 5.93 at almost 236 mph. In my opinion the AA/FAs were the best show of the whole event and judging by the crowd’s reaction most of them agreed with me.