NIGHTFIRE NATIONALS

bump spot was Mike Weiss in his beautiful Port Orchard , Washington-based ‘ 54 Corvette with a 6.71 at 212.19 .

In the first round of eliminations , all the quicker qualified drivers scored wins except for the aforementioned Radford , who was ambushed by Rob Moore and was relegated back to crew chief duties for Harper .

In round two , which took place at noon on Sunday , plenty more ambushes took place . Moore took out number-one qualifier Bret Williamson , running 6.11 at 239.65 to Williamson ’ s shut-off 6.57 at 162.72 . Moore had an . 017-second reaction time . Tony Jurado Jr . got bushwhacked by Ed Thornton Jr ., who used a 6.24 at 228.77 to defeat Jurado ’ s 6.83 at 225.75 The hits just kept on coming , as the next pair pitted number-two qualifier Jeremy Hanger against Rick Snavely in at number seven . At the green , it was Hanger out first , but Snavely made up ground by the 60-foot cone , then slowly drove around Hanger for the upset win . The final pair of round two saw the end of the upsets as Billy Harper just could not get around Mike Maggio ’ s 5.98 at 249.16 to Harper ’ s close 6.02 at 237.05 .

The air temperature suddenly dropped as clouds started to move in over the track for the third round . The first pair

out was Moore and Thornton Jr . This was to be Moore ’ s Waterloo , as Thornton ‘ s turbocharged

‘ 70.5 Camaro was just too strong and covered Moore ’ s attempt at another upset , 6.16 at 235.64 to 6.29 at 236.46 . The other half of the semifinals featured another turbo-versus-blower matchup . The results were just reversed of the first pair as Maggio took nearly a tenth of a second starting line advantage over Snavely and parlayed that into a 6.02 at 248.61 to 6.03 at 252.85 win .

With the final round quickly approaching , temperatures continued to drop to around 70 degrees and the sky grew ever cloudier . As the finalists were being pulled into the staging lanes , Mother Nature decided she had seen enough drag racing , as it started to rain – a rarity in this part of Idaho during this time of the year . The decision was made to hold the finals at the California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield , California , later on this year .

The fans may not have gotten a chance to see the finals , but they did see good , close racing . Was it record setting ? No . Nevertheless , it was entertaining , as the Pro Mods put on a great show . Close , side-by-side racing and that is all the fans want to see ,

and they certainly got their money ’ s worth . DI