(Words and photos by Brad Klaassen) – Springtime in Oklahoma always means two things, the wind is going to blow and two of the coolest old school nostalgia racing associations, based in north Texas, are coming to town to spew nitro and methanol on race starved fans both young and old. The Outlaw Fuel Altered Association is celebrating it’s twenty first season of hard core nitro and methanol powered altereds tearing up the eighth mile where sub four second passes are commonplace in qualifying. However, after two rounds of qualifying the Chicago style format is put into place and a 4.0 index is mandatory.

The Southwest Heritage Racing Association, in its fifth year of existence, competes at the same track distance as the OFAA, offering racers the option of running Nostalgia Eliminator 1-3 on eighth mile indexes, plus a newly created super cool nostalgia super stock class for old school big iron doorslammers. One of the absolute coolest things about both of these associations, no matter where they compete, attitudes are checked at the gate and it’s mandatory that racers, crews, and fans all have a fantastic time. The racing doesn’t begin until the early evenings, but both groups run very well organized shows at a fast pace insuring the show doesn’t go too late into the night for fans and the teams.

This year just like every year the competition was hot and heavy. Plus, a new twist to the 2017 SHRA action was the creation of the Oklahoma Nostalgia Mafia Drag Racing Coalition and Texas Nostalgia Mafia Drag Racing Coalition social media sites to talk some good natured trash and stir the pot a bit with teams, racers, and fans before and after each race.

The Okies were number one qualifiers in NE 1 with Cordell, Oklahoma’s, Jason Courtney, taking the honors while Mark Cottrell from Choctaw, Oklahoma, qualified number one in the NE 2 class. Texan Keith Darrow took the top qualifying spot in NE 3 and calls Forney home. However, when the tire smoke and methanol fumes cleared at the end of the evening, Texan Andy Mears from Lubbock took the trophy home in NE 1 with his beautiful “Drag Slayer” funny car. Garrry “the hit man” Wheeler from Wagoner, Oklahoma, put them all on the trailer and collected the NE 2 victory for the Oklahoma Nostalgia Mafia in his injected front engine slingshot. Doug Morrison from Gainesville, Texas, took home the trophy in NE 3 in his hemi powered injected bantam to give the Texas Nostalgia Mafia the upper hand after the first 2017 SHRA event of the year in the eight race series.

The Outlaw Fuel Altereds put on their usual exciting, fans on the edge of their seats, show as well. With fourteen wild nitro and methanol powered hot rods in the house it’s an event not to be missed.  At the end of the evening Justin, Texas’s, Eric Buchanan, in Terry Darby’s “Nitro Relapse”, battled it out with Donny McSwain’s “Wild One” from Rockwall, Texas. Buchanan went a 3.77 at 187 in the finals violating the 4.0 performance cap giving McSwain the win with a 4.11 at 174 mph pass.

So, that’s the way it went down for the first edition of the 2017 Outlaw Fuel Altered Association and Southwest Heritage Racing Association’s season long competition. Both groups put on fantastic events that are a great Saturday evening show at every track they hit. So, go check them out and you can thank me later. Now, go check out the shots.