he 2005 Goodguys/VRA season came to a rough and tumble end Oct. 29-30 at storied Famoso Raceway. Coming into the event, 11 of the 14 class championships were still undecided, which provided for an anxious weekend for nostalgia drag racing’s top teams.

The weekend was carnage filled with five major incidents, one of which turned sadly fatal when 76-year-old Roy Moore of Santa Paula suffered a crash in C/GAS competition. Moore was flown to Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield where he succumbed to his injuries later that evening.

In Nostalgia Top Fuel action, Upland, California’s Howard Haight won his third Goodguys event title of the season driving Butch Blair’s “Fugowie” dragster. Haight used consistent performances and some luck to advance to the final where he squared off with newly crowned Goodguys/VRA Top Fuel Champion Rick White of San Diego. At the flash of green, Haight streaked to a 5.99 at 251.04 to defeat White who went up in tire smoke.

The story in the Nostalgia Funny Car division was the record breaking performances of Hawthorne, California’s Larry Pettit. Driving his and partner George Doty’s “Crazy Horse” 1971 Mustang funny car, he became the first driver to ever record a sub-six second run in a Goodguys/VRA-legal Nostalgia Funny Car when he blasted to a 5.928 during qualifying. He backed it up the next day with an even quicker run establishing a new class elapsed time record of 5.927.

During Sunday’s eliminations Pettit won the class championship title in dramatic fashion by overtaking points leader Dan Horan Jr. in a semi-final clash. Leaving nothing on the table, the Doty & Pettit team then defeated Nostalgia Funny Car rookie Dennis LaCharite in the final round, running a 6.167/232.25 to LaCharite’s tire spinning 6.468/223.43.

Event A/Fuel and class championship honors went to Claude LaVoie of Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada when he ran a 6.492 at 195.65 mph in the final to defeat teammate Kin Bates. During qualifying, LaVoie ran the quickest run in class history at 6.179 but he wasn’t able to back up the historic run.