(Photos by Kim Fuller) • The 52nd edition of the famed Nightfires drag race at Boise’s Firebird Raceway continues to attract some of the best NHRA Heritage Series-types west of the Rockies and Ohio.
James Day, driving Cecil Matthews’ Camaro funny car set the Speed and ET mark for the weekend in the first session of qualifying on Friday Night and leads the field with his stout 5.591 elapsed time at 261.02 miles per hour.
Washington’s Michael Peck in the Peck Family’s Instigator Camaro sits solidly in the second position, running 5.800 ET at 241.63 MPH, followed closely by Bobby Cottrell’s 5.804 at 250.69 MPH.
Thirteen nitro funny cars hauled to the historic track with Jim Maroney sitting on the bump spot, in his re-bodied Speed Sport Camaro with a 6.323 ET at 216.00 MPH. No, not all of the nitro funny cars are Camaros, Geoff Monise’s Quarter Pounder Firebird sits forth with a 5.873 ET and Drew Austin’s Ford-powered Mustang awaits session two.
Tyler Hester leads the Top Fuel field for Round One of Qualifying with his 5.813 ET at 234.21 MPH, Heritage Series Champion Tyler Hilton second with a soft 5.867 at 239.87 MPH as a check out pass. Veteran Jim Murphy has yet to run.
Bryan Hall, driving his Nomad Top Fuel Dragster carded a solid 5.877 ET at 226.85 for number three after the first round of qualifying.
Adam Sorokin with the Champion Speed Shop small block Chevy powered dragster sits forth with an early shutoff 6.212 ET.
Shawn Van Horn, back in the seat with his Titan Engineering-backed top fueler sits sixth.
The fans, and especially kids, are always treated to the Firebird Raceway afternoon driver autograph party and most of the drivers love it. A great connection to bring in future generations of drag racing fans.
Two more qualifying sessions are on tap for Saturday with the addition of an awesome AA/Fuel Altered field yet to run.
