12►

Nitro teams were attacking the famed quarter mile at Palm Beach International Raceway in West Palm Beach, Florida with zeal on Thursday as the week long NHRA nitro pre season testing session moved into its third day and the last day of being closed to the public. It wasn’t an easy row to hoe for any of the teams at PBIR as cool atmospheric conditions and amazingly good air had crews scrambling to figure out the right tune up to keep cars from blowing their tires off at the hit of the throttle. As Dale Armstrong once told us, nitro cars may seem like complete brutes but in reality they are finely tuned instruments and even subtle changes can have major performance impact. The teams that were struggling with early run spin backed their cars down and many were then fighting tire shake further down the track. That’s not to say that everyone was in the same boat. Robert Hight laid down some significant numbers (we’re not allowed to publish them) and the Al-Anabi cars made some strong passes as well.

It is always cool to see these teams in a more relaxed environment at PBIR before the grind of the season takes its toll on them. To a man, everyone admitted that they had been chomping at the bit to get on the track and burn nitro but they also were relieved for some time off when the World Finals concluded at Pomona last November.

We had conversations with the John Force Racing camp and while they didn’t give us any specifics, we can tell you that they were genuinely excited about upcoming announcements and from the tone and attitude of the conversations, it seems as though that have a strong plan going forward in the future for John Force and the other member of the team. Robert Hight for instance is in the first year of a five year deal with Auto Club of Southern California. That’s good news for that team.

You’ll see action and pit shots in this gallery. REMEMBER, OUR LIVE BROADCAST OF THE 2014 PRO WINTER WARM UP CAN BE SEEN HERE — STARTING AT 10:30 AM EASTERN TIME ON FRIDAY!

GALLERY:

12►