Good-guys have AWESOME finale!!!

12/15/03

orry gang, no Marc and Gary Meadors interview this month, we'll try again next time, so let me fill you in on a couple of major happenings that have occurred as of lately. Yes, Goodguys ARE running a Nostalgia Fuel Funny Car class at the March Meet first of all. Hopefully a few new NF/FC's will be done for that race. If you are building one please let us know first here at www.dragracingonline.com.

It is wintertime on the Left coast. After being at the final Super Chevy Show/ Nitro Coupe race at LVMS put on by the Gustin Family, where it was like 40 degrees and they still ran Fuel Coupes, man it was cold! It's raining cats, dogs and sheep today in Southern California and frankly I'm ready for some nitro fumes and sunshine again, as I'm NOT a winter person. Anyway, considering the extremely cold daytime weather for the Las Vegas area, it was a damn good show with your 2003 World Champion, Dan Nicholson pulling off the seasons' last victory plus a "Back to Back" championship! "Dangerous Dan" and his Nostalgia 1963 Corvette were not the quickest or fastest at The Strip, but he got the win light when Canadian Gary Irving red-lighted with his awesome 1937 Chevy Coupe. Irving's' best ET and Speed were like 6.25, at 227.44 mph, not too shabby considering just how cold it was in Vegas! Best times for the Champion Dan Nicholson, were 6.35, and 216.41 mph. Others making the venture all the way to Vegas were Bruce Boland's 33' Willys (last time out as he sold the car, he returns next year with naturally a 63' Vette), John Scalpi's famous "Wopado2" 1957 Chevy, Andy Neyer's "Arizona Animal" Corvette, John Hick's Texas Vette, Lee Smith (awesome matching Pro Mod and 1958 red Corvette tow cars!) from Salem Oregon, and Tony Foti's LAPD Camaro.

The car show was a little down on entries, maybe that is why this was the last scheduled Super Chevy Show at The Strip, but the quality was top notch. My very favorite vehicles at the show were the little yellow Nash Metropolitan with a blown Chevy for power (sorry I didn't get the entries' name) and Don Center's 596 cu in Trike that has already put on 900 HP + on the dyno. Center is adding nitrous to the Trike in the very near future! Check out his work at www.lvtrikes.com.

Honestly, I thought I'd seen it all in my almost 40 years as a photojournalist, but while at the Super Chevy Show I got to watch Team Hanna change a J-85 Jet engine after encountering problems on Rich Hanna's very first pass. They missed one session but were back on Sunday to lay down great 6.00 to defeat Ken Hall's close but trailing 6.08. Al Hanna, Dick Rosberg, and the rest of the crew, I'm impressed! Also got to meet the delightful Jessie Harris (new driver of the Queen of Diamonds) who not only can drive the 300 mph Jet dragster as well as anyone, but has a fantastic personally to go with that talent. Oh yeah, she's not too bad to look at either! As Al Hanna himself put it, "She's a Stone Fox!" Jessie explained that she had only driven a 16 second street car before hopping in the Jet Dragster, once again, I was totally impressed by this welcome addition to Drag Racing. According to Jerry Segal of Segal Motorsports, now in Las Vegas, NV (702-808-5391), "It's much easier to teach someone green without bad habits to drive one of these cars". Jerry is one of the premiere drivers and builders of Jet Race Cars, not only that, he'll tell you like it is, no BS. Segal has four cars he is putting together at his brand new shop in Las Vegas, two are Camaro Funny Cars for himself and Smokey Joe Doughit. If you want a top-notch racecar of any kind see Jerry.