Words by Darr Hawthorne - Photos by Donna Bistran, James Drew, Darr Hawthorne and Tim Marshall

The annual Rockabilly Rod Reunion – Hot Rod Heritage Series event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was affected by high winds on the Memorial Day Weekend, delaying qualifying and then extending into raceday with gale force winds. 

Prior to Saturday afternoon’s wind gusts, twenty of the Nitro Funny Cars and some of the Pro Street machines from the PSCA assembled on the track surface in a Salute to Our Military. Reminiscent of the Manufacturer’s Meets at long-gone Southern California dragstrips, this is a tradition that could only be accomplished with some twenty floppers and a dozen door cars. When an assembly like this comes together, the photographers were all over it!

NITRO FUNNY
CAR QUALIFYING

Saturday brought out some of the best examples of the current crop of Nitro Funny Cars in what would hopefully be three sessions of qualifying. 

In the first session, as he did at the season opening March Meet, Jason Rupert’s “Mert Littlefield Tribute” Camaro led the field with a solid 5.751 ET at 255.34 mph pass, a speed that would hold for the event and was the provisional number one for funny cars. Texan John Hale, whose performance is much improved since adding Gary Kennedy, sat in the second qualifying position with a 5.911 ET at 246.44 mph. In third was Dennis LaCharite’s GTO, gaining consistency with the addition of crew chief Jon Wurtz, with a 6.014 ET at 246.44 mph.

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