Fire Cracker Nationals at Albuquerque, NM

Words by Jim Baker

Photos by Brad Baker

The FIRECRACKER NATIONALS at Albuquerque Dragway in New Mexico featured the WFA (Western Fuel Altereds) along with ‘Outlaw Door Slammers’; AA/FC Funny Cars; Big $$$ Brackets; and Jets! The stands were full; the pits were stuffed; and the food was inexpensive!  What more could any drag racer want?

Shown above is the winning Fuel Altered ‘Carbon Copy’ driven by Gregg Holman from the Phoenix, Arizona area. Gregg topped a quality field which included the previous two WFA Champions, Sheldon Lofgreen and Mitch Bowen.

The co-feature of the event was the ‘Outlaw Door Slammers’ with both supercharged and Nitrous-equipped engines. (Most of us would call them Pro Mods.)

Though not the quickest car in the field, the winner was the beautiful blue Corvette driven by Arthur Cordova from Ben’s Automotive. Art clicked off three runs during eliminations with the best reaction times of the night to win going away.

The low E.T. car was the ‘soul shaking’ ’57 Chevy of Lyle Byrum from El Paso who had the entire field covered by half a second. Alas, a header broke on the burnout for Round 1 and the quick car was finished for the night. But that is drag racing.

A very high quality AA/FC from El Paso, Texas, won the Funny Car Match Race. ‘Blown Cent-Less’ was the catchy name for the car driven by Ray Stout.