By Brian Losness

The Pepsi Nightfires (You really need to be a part of it)

First off I have to say I have been absolutely floored by the responses I have received by my first two columns.  I have received a great many emails in response to the articles. Many have been extremely insightful and supportive; others have been frank and honest and have told me that I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.  You know what, that is just fine too. 

One of the things I wanted to do with this column is to expand the level of debate on the subject and get people talking about it.  I figure if two people take the time to email me, then there are ten times that amount reading the column and then taking the time to talk to one another, and ten times that amount are taking the time to just read the column. Trust me when I say I have gotten a crap load more than two emails on the columns. So to everybody who has taken the time to read the columns and send emails, thank you. To all those who have read the columns, thank you. Tell your friends to give it a try; you never know, they might like it.

With August here, the time is near for the second of the big three nostalgia races on the schedules for the Nostalgia Top Fuelers and Nostalgia Funny Cars.

Haulers will be soon invading  the Treasure Valley of Idaho from around the country on their way to the legendary Firebird Raceway outside of the Boise suburb of  Eagle, Idaho, and the running of the 39th Annual Pepsi Nightfire Nationals.

This is the time of the year when people who love old school nitro drag racing not only locally but across the country (and some from New Zealand) get excited and flock in droves to the drag strip at the base of the mountains outside of Boise. During the afternoon and evenings, the pits look like Pomona the weekend of the Winternationals. There are so many fans in the place it gets hard to move around in the pro pit area, and it is not uncommon to see traffic backed up on State Highway 16 outside the track to get in. So get there early

Honestly the biggest question mark in my mind is going to be car count.  With gas/diesel and nitro prices seemingly on a downturn, thus making is somewhat easier to travel; it is going to interesting to see how many of the professional cars make the venture up to Idaho. 

As a fan of all things nitro I would love to see a truck load of nitro cars show up, in both classes and I hope to god there are at least 35 nitro burners on the grounds. In addition to that I would hope to see at least eighteen pro mods.  This event is better served as a full plate.  Idaho drag race fans have huge appetites for nitro, blowers and nitrous, hell, for fast cars in general.

It's hard to put a finger on what exactly it is that gives this race the vive it has.  Having been fortunate enough to have attended the last sixteen Nightfires I can honestly say there has been an evolution, not only of the event, but of the facility.