HILTON AND PADILLA LEAD NITRO FIELDS WHILE COTTRELL SHINES IN ROUND 1 OF FUNNY CAR

When Tyler Hilton said he wasn’t going o change anything but the paint scheme on his new Hemi front-engine Top Fuel Dragster once campaigned by Tony Bartone and Steve Boggs, he meant it, and it’s working in his favor. 

Hilton rocked the house in the final qualifying session, which was run under the lights on Saturday night due to numerous delays. Hilton lost the number one qualifying spot after the second session on Saturday afternoon to Pete Kaiser. But the driver of the Great Expectations Top Fuel Dragster was able to wrestle the number-one spot right back in the final session. Hilton recorded another career-best elapsed time in a thrilling and dramatic last qualifying session of the 2022 season, running a sizzling 5.633 at 241 miles per hour.

“Run was good, “Hilton said. “I ad brain fade backing up and up there on the line, but whatever it was qualifying. The thing left good picked up a little all the way. It was spinning pretty good from half-track on. The track was losing heat. I went down to about a thousand or eleven hundred feet. The motor is happy. Just drive it a little further when we need to.”

Hilton, who came into the season finale in Bakersfield in the fight of his life for the 2022 NHRA Heritage Series Top Fuel Championship with Bret Williamson, now sits just one win light away from the title on Sunday. In a shocking turn of events, the championship points leader, Bret Williamson, failed to make the eight-car show, forcing him to sit on the sidelines to see how his fate plays out on Sunday. 

Two other Top Fuel drivers also have an outside chance of stealing the championship away on the season’s final day. If Hilton is defeated in round one on Sunday morning, then third or fourth in the points, Adam Sorokin or Bryan Hall needs to go on to win the entire event to win the championship. Hall controls his destiny as he matches up with Hilton in round one. But a devastating explosion for Hall in the final qualifying session on Saturday night has the H&H Nitro Nomad doubtful of a return to action. Adam Sorokin will square off against Tyler Hester. 

The Fuel Altereds are also in action this weekend at Bakersfield, running a Chicago-Style format with the two runs scheduled for Saturday afternoon and the plan of the top four cars coming back and duking it out on Sunday. Well, due to the numerous delays on Saturday, which forced the action well into the evening, the Fuel Altered guys were only able to make one run on Saturday, and Tom Padilla, behind the wheel of The Red Dragon, was the one to make the most of it.  

A wild and wacky first session for the Alterds saw Padilla set the pace with a 6.146 at 200 miles per hour, a full seven hundredths better elapsed time-wise than the next best guy. That next best guy happened to be your 2022 Night Fire Nationals winner in Fuel Altered, James Generalao Jr. Generalao stopped the clocks at 6.210 at 225 miles per hour to put him in the number two spot. While Kyle Hough, who is making his final start behind the wheel of the legendary Nanook for a move to Nostalgia Top Fuel next season, rounded out the quick three with 6.259 at 172 miles per hour. 

The Nitro Funny Cars kicked off their first round of eliminations on Saturday night under the lights in Bakersfield, and no one shined more than the four-time and reigning champ, Bobby Cottrell. 

Cottrell set low elapsed time for the round with a 5.623 at 260 miles per hour against Jeff Utterback, who replaced Geoff Monise as an alternate to advance into round number two on Sunday.

In Round number two on Sunday, Cottrell will have a date with the man known for his excellent driving capabilities and starting line prowess, James Day. Day struggled in qualifying, not making it into the show til the last shot on Saturday afternoon. But the driver of the Matthews Motorsports Nostalgia Funny Car was able to step up big time in round number. Day made his best run of the weekend at 5.706 at 247 miles per hour to topple Michael Peck Sr and keep his season alive. 

Billy The Kid Morris, at the wheel of the Problem Child Nostalgia Funny Car, recorded the second-best time of the round at 5.664 seconds at 257 miles per hour to take out Brad Thompson and advance into round two. But the upset of the round had to be when your defending California Hot Rod Reunion champion in Nostalgia Funny Car, Drew Austin, fell in the opening round to Nathan Sitko, filling in for the ill Ryan Hodgson.

Austin got a significant advantage on the starting line, but Sitko had the power and reeled him in to take the round-one win. Sitko ran an impressive 5.717 at 251 miles per hour to Austin’s 5.831 at 242 miles per hour. Sitko will race Billy Morris in round two. 

Cory Lee, who barely got around Dan Horan in the opening round, will square off against Tony Jurado, who took down Bill Windham in round two. 

And finally, Tim Boychuck got around Chris Davis. He will take on Matt Bynum in the quarter-finals, as Bynum took care of business against the reining Legends of Nitro, rookie of the year in Nostalgia Funny Car, Kamala Pocock.

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FRIDAY EVENT NOTEBOOK – STORYLINES SHAPING UP FOR FINAL BATTLE

THE GODFATHER PART 2 – 1995 Nostalgia Top Fuel championship-winning driver and 2021 Nostalgia Top Fuel championship-winning crew chief with Dan Horan, Pete Kaiser, returned to the driver’s seat after a six-year hiatus at this weekend’s race in Bakersfield, California, and looked like her never left. 

In his first pass down the track in six years, Kaiser laid down an impressive 5.795 at 248 miles per hour to slide into the number three spot after the first day of qualifying for the Top Fuel cars at the 30th annual California Hot Rod Reunion. 

CONSISTENCY IS KEY – Billy “The Kid” Morris, driving the Eddie Knox-owned and tuned “Problem Child” Nostalgia Funny Car, had one of the most consistent cars during the first qualifying day at the 30th annual California Hot Rod Reunion. 

In the opening session, Morris ripped off a stellar 5.723 at 239 miles per hour, good enough to put him in the No. 3 position. 

Morris backed up his 5.72 with a 5.75 in the second qualifying session, making him one of only a handful of cars to get down the track on both runs.

Morris now sits comfortably in fourth heading into the final qualifying session on Saturday afternoon. 

A PUNCHERS CHANCE – Adam Sorokin may be a long shot from winning the NHRA Heritage Series Top Fuel Championship, entering the season’s final race this weekend in Bakersfield, California. But the driver of the Champion Speed Shops knows that if the two ahead of him in points, Bret Williamson and Tyler Hilton, stumble, it’ll be his for the taking. 

“We’re a dark horse for sure in this race,” Sorokin said. “But you know what? Tyler didn’t qualify at Tulsa, and Brett went out in the first round. Both of those guys can possibly not qualify for this show, which would leave it open to Bryan and me to try to win that race and win the championship. It would be a surprise, but things happen. It’s drag racing, so shit happens. Right?” 

Sorokin currently sits third in the Top Fuel points standings, 82 points out of the lead. However, after a considerably slow start to the season, the Champion Speed Shops team decided to do a chassis change at the last race out in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The team saw an immediate improvement. Sorokin wheeled his small block Chevy Dragster to a No. 2 qualifying position and a runner-up finish, falling just short to Shawn Bowen in the final round. 

“We had struggled with that new chassis for the last couple of years, especially with the sixty-foot times,” Sorokin admitted. “We didn’t see any improvement, no matter what we threw at it, more mag, more blower, more percentage, whatever it would be, it wasn’t responding well. That made Bobby McLennan, the owner of the car, decide, you know what, we’re not necessarily in this points chase, let’s bring the old car out and see how it reacts at Tulsa and see if we got any returns from it. We went right out, and immediately the car responded. We’re like, this chassis likes the combination a lot better than the other chassis. 

“We think that the other chassis’s a little bit too stiff, and it’s not letting us do the same things that we were doing with the old car. We bring out the old car. We go back to the tire pressures we were using with the old car, everything. The motor’s back a little bit further than the new car. I think it’s out 36 inches instead of 40 on the new car. The chassis tubing is a little thicker on the new car than on the old Sterling. That old Sterling, man, it was just getting back together with an old girlfriend. You knew everybody’s moves, and everything worked out just right.”

Sorokin hadn’t been behind the wheel of that 2009 chassis in over three years, but as you can see, it worked out for them in their favor. The team has brought that same chassis to the season’s final race in Bakersfield this weekend in hopes of closing out the season and capturing Adam’s first win in a very long time. 

“They don’t have a podium in Drag Racing,” Sorokin said. “You don’t have first, second, and third. You just got runner-up. Ricky Bobby said it the best. If you’re not first, you’re last. I want to take a win home. You start wanting one after you haven’t had one in a while. You forget how it feels and how good it feels when you win that race. We want to end the year with a win and possibly a dark horse championship. But to win at the Hot Rod Reunion, it’s a big race for us, and we would love to win that.”

But Sorokin knows that with fifteen cars showing up to this weekend’s race in Bakersfield and only eight spots available to qualify, he and his team will have more than their fair share of work cut out for them. 

“With 15 cars coming, man, it’s going to be a race just to get into that race itself,” Sorokin said. “That means seven people are going home. You got to hit the ground running. It’s not imperative to be the number one or two qualifier, but you want to be in that top five. Then that gives you a bit more favorable pairing, and then we can work from there. With the cars that are coming that are capable of running sixties and stuff like that, the big thing is that a lot of those guys can overpower the tracks, spin the tires, and find themselves outside on Sunday. You don’t want to screw the pooch on the first couple of hits and then have one shot to get in. That’s always scary. You got to be smart about it.”

But one thing is for sure, if Tyler Hilton or Bret Williamson do “screw the pooch” in qualifying, then Adam Sorokin and the Champion Speed Shops will be ready to pounce. 

DOUBLE OR NOTHING – One would think championship points leader Brett Williamson already has enough on his plate coming into this weekend’s 30th annual California Hot Rod Reunion. Not only is he trying to focus on securing his first Nostalgia Top Fuel Championship. But his most significant threat in the points, Tyler Hilton and the Great Expectations team announced they purchased a championship-winning car formerly driven by Tony Bartone and tuned by Steve Boggs to debut this weekend. 

 

Well, as it turns out, Williamson would have added even more to his already loaded plate as he will be pulling double duty at Bakersfield and piloting a Pro Mod car this weekend. But wait, there’s more. Williamson enters Bakersfield as the points leader in the Pro Mod, making it two championships up for grabs this weekend for Williamson. 

Williamson has had a career year behind the wheel of the Mike Fuller-owned and tuned Forever Young Top Fuel car in 2022. With two wins at two of the Heritage series’ most prominent races, like the March Meet and the Night-Fire Nationals in Boise, Idaho, Williamson enters the season finale at Bakersfield with a slim two-round advantage over Tyler Hilton. 

But having won the one and only Xtreme Pro Mod West series race contested in Sacramento earlier this year, and the series ending their season in joint with the Heritage Series at the California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, Williamson is now tasked with trying to capture two titles in the same weekend. 

“Yeah, that’s no extra pressure right there,” Williamson sarcastically admitted. “Everybody keeps coming by saying, oh yeah, you got this. Well, I won’t have it until Sunday afternoon.”

However, this isn’t Williamson’s first rodeo, having pulled double duty in the past and jumping behind the wheel of two of the wildest machines you can think of, a Nostalgia Top Fuel car and a Pro Mod car, on the same weekend. But this time, the stakes are much higher.

“It’s pretty tough,” Williamson admitted. “We’ve done it before, and hopefully, we can all do it again, including me. Hopefully, I remember how to drive both separately.” 

But make no bones about it. Williamson is an immense competitor and would love nothing more than to walk away from Bakersfield this weekend with two titles in hand.

“I want it real bad,” Williamson admitted. “We’re this close; I’d hate to mess it all up now.” 

CHASING PERFECTION – Bobby Cottrell is on the brink of capturing his fifth consecutive Nostalgia Funny Car championship in the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series. Not many drivers can say they’ve done that. But not many drivers can also say they’ve gone the entire season undefeated. Well, the four-time and reigning NHRA Heritage Series Nostalgia Funny Car Champion Bobby Cottrell is staring that possibility in the face as he rolls into this weekend’s 30th annual California Hot Rod Reunion. 

Cottrell kicked off the 2022 season with a win at the historic Bakersfield March Meet, the fourth of his stellar career. He would back that up with a win at the Funny Car Ignitor in Boise, Idaho, in a fantastic final round against Billy Morris. Then Cottrell would pull off the hat trick, winning his third race in a row on the season in Bowling Green, Kentucky, for the Holley National Hot Rod Reunion. Finally, going four for four and conquering what many considered the second biggest race on the Heritage Series tour, the Night-Fire Nationals, again held in Boise, Idaho. 

Although Kris Krabill won the Nitro Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in Nitro Funny Car, Cottrell and his Bucky’s Auto Center team did not attend that race. Added in with the rule of a drop race in the Nostalgia Funny Car in the Heritage Series, Cottrell is still technically undefeated. 

This leads us into this weekend’s Heritage Series season finale in Bakersfield, California, as Cottrell is now just four win lights away from putting together a perfect season. 

However, Cottrell has been down this road before, having entered the season’s final race last year in Bakersfield with a chance of going undefeated until an untimely cracked fuel tank in the semi-finals against Jerry Espeseth ended his chances.  

One year later, Cottrell is hoping lady luck will be on his side this time as he goes for a perfect season once again.

“I don’t think a perfect season has even been done before in Funny Car,” Cottrell said. “It’s pretty important to me if we can do it. That would be a dream come true. We fell short last year, but we did really well. We won the championship. But we’re just going to take it one run at a time and see what happens.” 

ALL EYES ON ME – Tyler Hilton and his dad Bobby have made a lot of bold moves this season. For instance, going against the grain, sticking to what they believe in, and racing in Bowling Green, Kentucky, earlier this year when the rest of the Top Fuel class decided to pull out and run in St.Louis that same weekend. 

But nothing was bolder than when they decided to drop their big-block Chevy program and purchase a dominant Front-Engine Top Fuel car previously campaigned by championship-winning duo Tony Bartone and Steve Boggs while in the middle of running for a championship. 

“We made a lot of runs with a Chevy car,” Hilton said. “We’ve been passing it back and forth about making a change, and we decided to pull the trigger and do it. It was not a knee-jerk reaction. It was just time to do something different.”

Hilton and his dad invested in a proven and championship-winning car. They also acquired the entire Steve Boggs combination and notebook on how to run the car, seemingly giving them a considerable advantage going into the final race at Bakersfield. 

“The whole combination is there,” Hilton said. “The biggest thing right now is just keeping restraint and not changing stuff that doesn’t need to be changed.”

Last weekend, in hopes of getting the car dialed in for the Reunion, Hilton and his Great Expectations team tested the new car for the first time at Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Hilton was amazed at how different it was behind the wheel of his old Chevy car as opposed to his new Hemi rail.

“The Chevy car you sat low in it like an old car,” Hilton said. “It was an old-school sitting five-point cage car. You laid down in it, and you couldn’t see. At night you really couldn’t see. It was a wall of fire and nothing. You drove out the seat of your pants a lot more, but this car is a lot different. You sit up, and it’s got more room in it. It’s a comfortable car for the driver, and we’re excited to start a new chapter.”

As for on-track results, Hilton made two test runs at different points in the day, with both runs being early shutoffs to focus solely on early numbers. 

“We made two hits on Saturday,” Hilton said. “Weather was cool, and the track was decent. The first time in the car, it went well on the first hit, and I shut it off early. We were just doing early number stuff. We didn’t come back out until five p.m. on the second hit, and it cooled off, the track was ok for our type of car, but it still went well. It was good to have the high end of the tune-up and the low end. We’re going to land somewhere in the middle, so we had both ends of the spectrum. Overall it went really well.”

The car made its debut this weekend at the 30th annual California Hot Rod Reunion as Hilton is in the fight of his life for the Top Fuel championship, trailing Bret Williamson by just 32 points. 

“As far as the whole points deal, we haven’t even talked or thought about that, honestly,” Hilton admitted. “We want to get this racecar and get it going down the racetrack. If you do that right, all that other stuff will hopefully fall into place.” 

FRIDAY QUALIFYING – 

 

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