Words by Brian Losness - Photos by Michael Fischbeck, Mark King, Brian Losness, and Michelle Simmons

To say that the AA/FD show at the 2012 March Meet was interesting would be a huge understatement. Fifteen cars showed up for the event, a “short” field in numbers but not in quality.

The big surprise this year was that the AA/FD Utah posse of Jack Harris and the rest of the Kaysville bunch missed their first March Meet in many, many years. The reason was that Harris sold both the team’s dragster and funny car, and the word on the streets is that the lights are burning late and bright at the Neil and Parks chassis shop as not one but two new AA/FD’s are being built for Jack and Brett.

The date of their arrival has not officially been announced, but again the word is that there could either the Pepsi Nighfire Nationals debut at Boise, Idaho, or the Bakersfield, Calif., Hot Rod Reunion at the end of the season.

The number of AA/FD’s that would race the March Meet at the Patch (as the natives refer to the racetrack), unfortunately was reduced by one on Friday when March Meet veteran Denver Shutz made his first pass in his beautiful, newly painted Raisin Express/John Deere Dragster.

<< The car made a nice launch then, with tires spinning, drifted towards the centerline. It appeared Schutz over-corrected, veered left and made contact with the guard wall. The car bounced off and then made a long arch back left, hitting the wall once more. That impact knocked Schutz unconscious and the car, with the motor starting to rev up, headed for the shutdown area. It appeared that divine intervention was at hand however. As the fueler started to speed towards the end of the track the engine suddenly went silent and the car came to a stop just off the end of the racetrack. The crumpled chassis had to be cut apart to extract the injured Schutz from the car. He was transported to a local hospital, kept over night for observation and released Saturday morning.