For 38 years the Night Under Fire show at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio operated as an ever-growing affair, with larger crowds, better competition and a fireworks show to cap off the evening that got bigger each year. Then came 2016. It rained. Oh, how it rained! But in the face of artistic and financial disaster the Bader family, operators of what many call “America’s Race Track,” did the right thing, and called it at 5:20 PM on Saturday evening.

But this year’s event more than made up for last year’s disappointment. The crowd easily pushed the 40,000 spectator barrier, but even more importantly, the weather was perfect, the track was fast, and those 40,000 people were treated to an exceptional show.

Let’s define that word “show” just a bit. There are drag races, and then there are drag racing shows, and they are not the same thing. Sure, a lot of drag racing takes place at the Kelly Services Night Under Fire, but the on-track competition takes a back seat to the spectacular show that is the event. Drag racing purists may disdainfully pass off jet Funny Cars and Dragsters as a sideshow, but those who do so miss the point. Those cars are super-fun to watch. They’re loud, colorful and impressive – and from the crowd reaction at Norwalk, the fans love ‘em. Those same purists may turn up their noses at wheelstanders – but the fans love ‘em. The point here is that there really are two distinctly different types of drag racing fans – and our sport needs them both. You’re into pure drag racing? We’ll see you at the Mello Yello national event at Summit Motorsports Park next June 21-24. Love the show, the fireworks, the wheelstanders and the jets? We’ll see you at the 2018 Night Under Fire on August 11th. What could be simpler?

For the Funny Cars at Norwalk the event is run Chicago-style, and just in case you’re not familiar with that, it boils down to this simple format: Everyone runs in the first round, with the two quickest elapsed times coming back for the event title. Sure, everyone runs again in that second round, and the fans loved the show, but the reality is that all eyes are generally on those two finalists. This time around John Force, who has been appearing at the Night Under Fire for, well, decades, didn’t make the finale, but teammate Robert Hight did, where he faced Cruz Pedregon. Both men had notched strong three second elapsed times to make that finale, but there it was all Mr. World’s Fastest Driver (Hight ran close to 340 MPH a few weeks back). He won going away with a 3.865/321.50 to Pedregon’s nice 3.927/322.81.

If you’re a purist, tune out right now because we’re going to talk briefly about Chris Darnell’s “Shockwave” triple-engined Peterbilt truck. The show this monster weighing in at 8,000 lbs. puts on is almost beyond description. It’s nothing short of awesome and yes, the fans loved it. The heat produced by the truck’s three Westinghouse J34-48 engines really will singe your eyebrows if you’re foolish enough to stand too close, and yeah, it’s also pretty darn loud.

But, as loud as Darnell’s truck is, it was overshadowed by the massive fireworks display that capped off the evening. We had a racer tell us early in the evening, “Yeah, I’ve been here for the fireworks at the national event, and they’re pretty good.” “Stick around,” we told him. “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” and we were right. The fireworks show was the best- ever, lasting about a half hour of non-stop pinwheels, starbursts and stunning boomers. By way of comparison, the fireworks show at the Night Under Fire is larger than you might see in a medium-sized city on July 4th – and that’s saying something.

We go to a lot of national events every year, and we love that kind of racing. But when it comes to pure fun at the drag strip, nothing – and we really mean nothing – compares to the Night Under Fire in Norwalk. It’s a winner in every sense of the word.