Fuel Altered Nationals at Eddyville, Iowa

10 Years and Still Going Strong

Words and photos by Dennis Mothershed

Sean Belt in the “Metal Mafia” gets set to make a run.

The rolling green hills of southeast Iowa were alive with Nitro Fuel Altered cars gathering for the tenth time on Aug. 21-23 to celebrate their drag racing heritage. No other drag race class has been more exciting or colorful.

In the late 1950s and ’60s they were shortened OEM frames or muffler pipe tubing welded together with a high center of gravity, a single roll bar, big slicks, high nitro loads, and lots of excitement for the driver and spectators. They rarely went straight with the short wheelbases, high sitting motors with high loads of nitromethane and hydrazine mixed with alky. They were outlawed at many tracks, banned from NHRA events while still maintaining a large fan base. Sharp track owners and promoters would book in Fuel Altereds as an exciting addition to Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars. Today’s Fuel Altereds mimic those dangerous and hairy handling cars at Eddyville Raceway each August for a race like no other. At this race, they are the main attraction and event. They meet all current safety standards and yet put on one hell of a show to the joy and thrill of thousands of faithful fans.

This year twenty cars filled out registration cards coming from nine different states: Texas, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa. The cars were powered by Chrysler Hemis, all kinds of small block and big block Chevys, and one Mopar Wedge on Nitro. The list of racers ran straight alky in nine of the cars and eleven cars chose to run some percentage of nitromethane.

Racing on an eighth-mile track works well for these cars. The Eddyville track management updated the stopping area of the track with new pavement that was welcomed by all of the racers. In the past, I have taken many a picture of cars bouncing around and getting airborne while trying to stop. This year there were no incidents of cars running off the end of the track into the cornfield.

This year, as in the past years, car owner and promoter Scott Gaulter put together a large amount of prize money and gift certificates for the racers. This race also benefits the track with ticket sales and concession sales to help keep America’s nicest eighth-mile dragstrip operating. Like many other tracks and associations, rain, rain and more rain has caused a lot of financial stress for everyone involved with drag racing events this year. We thank the weather man for a great forecast this particular weekend. There were some slight weather delays, but finals were again run off on Sunday to the joy of everyone.

Of the twenty cars entered, fifteen made it to the first round of competition. The carnage of broken parts reduced the field. The fastest eight cars race in the “A” field run for big money and prizes. The balance of seven cars faced off for the “B” field. The purse in the “B” is smaller but quite good. Each year, more racers that have been in the “B” field in previous years, have improved their game and have moved up to the “A” field.