(Darr Hawthorne photo)

Words by Darr Hawthorne
Photos by Paul Schmitz, James Drew, Gary Edwards and Darr Hawthorne

The new BDS fuel altered owned by the Bugg family made its debut.  (James Drew photo)

The second of the three-event Saturday Night Nitro shows held at Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, Calif., brought out a strong compliment of nitro funny cars, four front motored top fuelers, some big show cars licensing and more.

With a Chicago-style format and a one-shot qualifier it was anyone’s guess who’d end up in the final with surprise winner of Saturday Night Nitro 1, Zane Messenger, back and ready to show his win was no fluke.

Also there was last year’s California Hot Rod Reunion winning funny car owned by Gary Turner, now driven by James Day and tuned by Jon Wurtz, along with ten other AA/FC’s.

Famoso Raceway’s Chicago-style meant all funny cars would make one run with the Quick 8 returning for a second round, and the two quickest winning floppers meeting for a final round.