Team Firebird Wins Seventh Team Title

Results and photos courtesy The New Crew

With a season coined “Revin’ for Seven”, the 58-member Firebird Raceway team put together an energetic effort to sweep a seventh Track Team Championship at the Division 6 Summit E.T. Finals.

Firebird held off Woodburn Dragstrip in the final standings 63 to 54 points as the two rival teams finished #1 and #2 when all was said and done on Sunday, Sept. 4. Woodburn put two racers in victory lane, while Bremerton and Renegade earned the other two Sunday titles.

Firebird racers Jeff Higgins and Christopher Wingert earned semifinal finishes on Sunday, while veteran Larry Hale (who turned 77 on September 5) and Phil Sielaff survived until the quarter finals of Pro. Hale was celebrating his 60th year of drag racing, which dates back to when he first started racing in southern California in 1951 (at the age of 17).

A little extra pressure was volleyed on the Firebird racers last November when track general manager Bill New told everyone at the season closing banquet, “I’ll be 77 next August and we’d like for the team to earn a seventh track team championship.” He mentioned that it would be like hitting triple 7 on the slot machine. Fortunately enough the Firebird team delivered the knockout punch to win the “Triple 7”, defeating 16 northwest Division 6 tracks over Labor Day weekend.