The weather was a major player at this event.

NHRA Hot Rod Heritage

Words and photos by Brian Losness

Drag racing is never confused with endurance racing. Endurance racers run between six and twenty-four hours depending on the event. Drag racers run between 3.7 and 15 seconds depending on the different class make-ups.

However, after this Aug. 23-24 weekend at Rocky Mountain Raceway in Salt Lake City, Utah, endurance was going to be the name of the game. Endurance of the machines, endurance the teams, and the endurance of the fans was going to be paramount.

The Summer Send-Off was the last stop for the Nostalgia Funny Cars and Group 1 cars prior to the NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, Calif., on Oct. 18-20.

Thus Championships were up for grabs in 7.0 Pro, A/Fuel and the Junior Fuel divisions.

In addition a big payout bracket race was on tap for two days and a half-pay/half-way race for Sunday.

The plan for the Heritage Series cars was to run a single qualifying session at 8 p.m. on Friday and two sessions on Saturday afternoon and then run eliminations on Saturday night.

Well, Mother Nature had other ideas, and high winds and off-and-on light rain would force the hands of the RMR management and NHRA officials to call off the Friday night session and go with the plan for Saturday.