Fire was not what Hannes Wernhart wanted to see again for a long time, let alone his first time back in a race car.

But the agricultural innovator from Bakersfield, California, who ironically drives for TNT Motorsports, saw his Firebird nitro Funny Car erupt into flames just 100-150 feet off the starting line Friday afternoon. Fire was not what Hannes Wernhart wanted to see again for a long time, let alone his first time back in a race car.

But the agricultural innovator from Bakersfield, California, who ironically drives for TNT Motorsports, saw his Firebird nitro Funny Car erupt into flames just 100-150 feet off the starting line Friday afternoon.

The flash fire didn't injure Wernhart, but it signaled an unfortunate start to the 2007 season for the California Crude Oil-sponsored team. And it brought back memories of his fiery accident at Famoso Raceway in a Division 7 Top Alcohol Funny Car race May 22, 2005 -- the last time he drove a race car.

"We don't know what happened for sure, maybe something with the valve train," Wernhart said. "It backfired through the manifold. It went 'Boom!' and blew the blower off. We broke something."

But he shrugged off the setback, saying, "If you want to be in this world, you've got to be able to take this kind of stuff. If you put nitro in your motor, sometimes it gets upset with you."

Wernhart is an Austrian citizen from near Vienna who moved to the United States at age 17. He settled into a farmer's life in California, growing almonds, watermelons, and avocados and smaller yields of onions and potatoes. But he has shifted his focus to his Onion King Harvesting enterprise, designing, developing and marketing his onion-harvesting machine. Vocal about The American Dream, Wernhart is in the process of becoming a U.S. Citizen.