Dan Horan was the event winner.

NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series at Salt Lake City

Hard Day’s Night

Words and photos by Brian Losness

The third stop for the NHRA Heritage Series Funny Car gang along with Groups 1 and 2 took place June 7-8 at Spenser Young’s Rocky Mountain Raceway. The track is located in the shadows of the snowcapped Wasatch Mountains in West Valley, Utah, west of Salt Lake City.

Bright sunshine and warm temperatures would throw a curve to many of the teams who made the trek from California for this event. The static elevation of track is about 4327 feet with many teams getting readings of corrected elevation being closer to 7900 feet. This had one of the fuel crew chief stating, “Man, it’s hard enough for me to breathe up here, let alone getting the motor to run right.”

That was going to be a hurdle for some of the teams to overcome; being able to adjust their combinations to deal with the lack of oxygen in the thin air.

Some other teams had to overcome other obstacles throughout the weekend. This is what makes this type of drag racing like a giant family. When one family member has issues another family member steps in to help. In addition, when there are issues between members it stays in the family and they work them out themselves.

Nine AA/FC teams made the journey for a chance at the eight-car field.  There were some really feel-good stories at this race.