Fives are wild at Firebirds 40th Annual Nightfire Nationals

Words by Jeff Burk, Darr Hawthorne, and Brian Lossness - Photos by James Drew, Darr Hawthorne, and Brian Lossness

For AA/FC and AA/FD racers and fans, there are a few races on the schedule that have the kind of history that makes them major events. There’s the annual March Meet, held for more than fifty years in Bakersfield, CA, the World Series of Drag Racing in Cordova, IL, which also has been contested for over half a century, and finally the Nightfire Nationals at Boise, ID, which this year celebrated its 40th anniversary. For nostalgia racers, winning one of these races are is equivalent of an NHRA top fuel or funny car racer winning at the US Nationals, Gatornationals, or Winternationals.

Whatta you lookin’ at?

By Darr Hawthorne

After the Heritage Series AA/FCs were checked and passed through tech at the 40th Nightfire Nationals, race tech official  Ken Gentry went to some of  the funny car pits making  notes concerning body and spoiler measurements  of the nineteen AA/FCs  on the grounds. Gentry was seen measuring wheel openings, front and rear overhang, spoiler height and position, windshield area, as well as overall body specs.

click to enlarge

According to Gentry, his efforts at Boise were just to document each of  nostalgic -style bodies at the

Nightfire Nationals so he and
others would have baseline measurements when new
cars are built and brought to
an event. It should be noted
that the NHRA Heritage Series
and others, like the
Mickey Thompson/Victory Performanc/Comp Cans backed

DRO series, have enforced the current body rules and, as a result, most of the cars adhere to the spirit of what the rules were supposed to do. Having said that, DRO reporters and at least one car owner were told at Boise that the existing Heritage Series spoiler rules found in the NHRA Heritage rule book aren’t being enforced. It would have been nice to know that before the DRO series made its racers spend the money to make their spoilers conform to Heritage rules.

So it was no surprise that the 40th annual Nightfire Nationals at historic Firebird Raceway attracted not only huge crowds, but the premiere racers of AA/FC, AA/FD, and Pro Modifieds, and that the fans who attended got to see record breaking performances along with some of the best racing of the year.

The fans of nitro burning funny cars saw Indiana racer Paul “Hoosier Hitter” Romine and his team extend their unbeaten round win streak to eight as they won their second straight NHRA Heritage Series event. In Top Fuel, New York racer Tony Bartone reset the Firebird AA/FD track record at 5.57, and West Coast Pro Mod racer Bret Williamson went to his first final and unleashed the first ever 5 second Pro Mod run in Firebird history with a 5.98 /237 in qualifying.