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Words by Darr Hawthorne
Photos by Darr Hawthorne and Bryan Ellis
5/7/04
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Fuel & Fire Spectacular at historic Famoso Raceway lived up to its name,
albeit on a smaller scale than I had imagined. Getting together any combination
of Funny Cars, let alone 34 alky, nitro and gas floppers at a local drag strip
is a tough to promise to fulfill today. There were about 800 spectators throughout
the long day.
Promoter John Keigley delivered fun, competitive racing with a bunch of California Independent Funny Car Association cars, Nostalgia Nitro Funny Cars from the Knights of Nitro, a couple of modern fuel coupes and 300 inch dragsters in testing modes.
The Nostalgia Nitro cars ran old style match races and brought back lots of memories of days gone by, especially under the lights.
DRO’s Nostalgia editor Jeff “Mr. Pammy” Utterback in his first match race ran a best of 6.693/215.46 mph, laying down the best runs ever for Jeff Gaynor’s ‘70 Barracuda tuned by nitro veteran Mike Demarest. Utterback made straight passes and looks to be ready for upcoming Goodguys competition.
Bob Godfrey locked-up the rear end on this burnout and left his ‘63 Vette parked about 300 feet from the starting line as Randy Walls completed his burnout.
Dan Horan Jr. again showed the strength of his Dale Pulde tune-up running consistent low-6s at 225 mph. The Mustang’s new Carter paint job is not quite complete, but is looking fine.
Orange, California’s “Lil” Nate Bugg, a supercharger tech at SoCal’s Blower Drive Service, drove his ‘71 Dodge Charger in the evening session’s burnout. Bugg ran his second quickest ever e.t. of 6.29/227.61.
The CIFCA competition marked the first time since 1992 that one of their races was held at Famoso Raceway and these independent racers showed up in force with 23 Funnies. CIFCA is in its 20th anniversary year and runs on a 7.50 e.t. index.
2003 POWERade Super Comp Champ Fast Jack Beckman drove Dennis Murphy’s Ground Zero Omni into the winner’s circle defeating Jim Scott Jr. in the final round. It was a late one as the two cars fired at midnight.
| Gary Densham was on hand with his son Steven driving the family flopper. The Denshams failed to qualify for the event as a frustrated Gary remarked after their final attempt, “What the hell was that?” This may be the team of the future after Gary’s final season with John Force Racing. | Number 1 qualifier Steve Romanazzi laid down a near-perfect 7.502/182.29 to pocket the Bar’s Leaks Qualifier bonus. |
Chula Vista, California’s Pete Cogswell qualified 11th and ran strong making it to the semi’s where he lost on a red light to event winner Beckman. Cogswell collected the Enderle Quick Reaction Time bonus for his .001 in the second round.
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As with any summer drag strip outing there’s a good chance you’ll find three girls riding in the back of a ‘57 Chevy wagon.
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