(Photos by Wes Allison) – We’re here at the 2018 NHRA Winternationals and the photos are coming in hot and heavy. Friday qualifying was exciting with many interesting story lines developing at this first race of the 24 event NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season. For starters, Drew Skillman came out swinging to lead to the pro stock division in qualifying, in nitro funny car Jack Beckman and his team dropped a 3.86 on the competition to lead that class and Clay Millican is the current leader in top fuel.

They have been racing at Pomona since 1952 and this event has been going since 1961 so it is the second oldest on the tour and Pomona is the longest continuously operating drag strip on the planet. There’s history, there’s a load of cars, and there’s conditions on tap for Saturday that could see some titanic runs made in all classes.

Here’s a fresh batch of photos from Friday qualifying and we’ll keep the action going all weekend long. Oh, and Kenny Delco went for a heck of an interesting ride on this pass!

Click the images below to expand them and scroll on to see them all –