(Jeff Burk photo)

FRIDAY, JAN. 17

Late Thursday, after many teams had parts failure due in part to the combination of great track conditions and unseasonably cool air and the weather report for Friday was calling for more of the same, the PRO opted to move the advertised starting time Friday up from 4 and 6 PM to 3 and 5 PM. As it turned out, the first session was delayed to 3:30 to allow fans who were backed up a mile and a half on Beeline Highway waiting to get into the PBIR facility.

Despite the changes, a good crowd was on hand to see the NHRA nitro cars race side-by-side Friday evening. They weren’t disappointed. 

Ron Capps (Ron Lewis photo)

Defending NHRA Top Fuel World Champion Shawn Langdon and NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Funny Car veteran Ron Capps posted the best numbers in Friday’s session. Their performances were not unexpected with Alan Johnson calling the tuning shots on Langdon’s car and Rahn Tobler doing the same for Capps.

Langdon set the pace Friday with a pass of 3.726 seconds in his Al-Anabi ‘silver’ dragster. 

"When you are the defending champion, you're always concerned about how you're going to do the following year but I still feel like we're at the top of our game,” Langdon said. “Those runs are a nice confidence booster for all of us.”

For 2012 NHRA Top Fuel World Champ Antron Brown and his tuners Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald, the numbers were right with Langdon’s with a 3.735/325.37 mph effort.