AA/FC

Jason Rupert didn’t win the race but he did sew up the Heritage Series title at the HHR.

After qualifying in the third spot of the 16-car nitro funny car field, it looked like Jason Rupert, who has led the Heritage Series points for most of the season in his “Mert Littlefield Tribute” Camaro, was once again headed  to the final round, but his train jumped the rails when he was defeated in the second round by teammate Steven Densham, who was getting help from dad Gary. 

Paul Romine, Rupert’s closest competitor for the Championship could not make the call for the first round of AA/FC eliminations after reportedly having  no oil pressure when he warmed  the engine in his “Man O’ War” Mustang before the first round.   

Rupert commented on winning his first Heritage series Championship after years of chasing points in a Lucas Oil Series Top Alcohol Funny Car saying, “I have had so much fun this year racing with a great bunch of guys and especially to be racing with my dad, this is an incredible series with very tough competition, I couldn’t be happier.” 

A total of 33 nitro funny cars launched down the concrete Famoso raceway quarter mile, with 22 running Elapsed Times quicker than 5.994 seconds.  The all five-second AA/FC field had an astounding  5.886 bump spot, which was held down by Mark Hentges in the Austin & O’Brien “Northwest Hitter” Arrow.  It wasn’t that many years ago that a 5.88  could have been the Low Qualifier.

Sportsman Action

In the A/Fuel class, for the second week in a row, Kin Bates ran the table on the eight-car field setting low elapsed time of qualifying at 6.263 and Top Speed of 222.47 mph.  Bates defeated Jerry Kumre Jr. in the first round of eliminations, then took out John Harless for the second time in two weeks at the fabled Bakersfield track.  Saving his best effort for last.  Bates carded a 6.261 elapsed time charge in the final  round to take home the  Wally over Jeremy Sullivan.

Northern Californian Bob Lander, who qualified first, won the Junior Fuel class beating Don Enriquez in the final running 7.115 to a 7.238 for Enriquez.

Ronnie Lennon’s ’32 Bantam roadster took home the 7.0 Pro trophy with a final round win over Greg Howland’s Vette. Lennon’s 7.014 ET was good for the win when Howland went under the class index by just .007 of a second  with a quicker but losing 6.993.