Friday’s action at the Bakersfield March Meet was a healthy mix of excitement, performance, and explosiveness. And, just to think, there are two more days of this iconic event to go.
The Funny Cars got in two qualifying sessions, and Shane Westerfield set the pace with one more session to go. Tyler Hilton (Top Fuel) and Pete Peterson (Fuel Altered) lead their respective divisions after one session.
Westerfield led both sessions of Friday qualifying, lowering the boom in Q2 with a 5.539 elapsed time at 251.32 miles per hour. Jeff Arend is a distant second with a 5.643. Tony Jurado is third with a 5.652.
With Mother Nature on board, there might be more on the table for the Funny Car drivers.
“There is a chance for a record this weekend with the way it’s looking,” Westerfield said. “It’s just if the track can keep up with it. And Bakersfield obviously does a great job preparing it. So I don’t think that’ll be the issue. It’s just going to be keeping everything in one piece. But 1,320 feet all the way down there.”
Brad Thompson is on the bubble with a 5.906.
Defending NHRA Nostalgia Top Fuel champion Hilton established his dominance in Friday’s lone session.
“We were a little soft in testing yesterday, but we needed to just get down the racetrack,” Hilton explained. “We got some new wings, new downforce, some other new parts we’re trying. So we stood on it today, and I think it showed pretty well.”
Hilton has two more qualifying sessions on Saturday, with the first round slated for Sunday. Then, he will work toward doing something his Great Expectations team has tip-toed around but never brought to fruition. It’s the one race that has eluded the multi-time NHRA Heritage Series champion.
“We’ve won every other race on tour and we really want the March Meet,” Hilton explained. “We’ve been low qualifier twice. We’ve run it up twice. We really want this win. It’d be a great start to the year.”
Tyler Hester is second with a 5.71. at the same time, Pete Kaiser is third with a 5.797. Brad Thompson is on the bubble.
Fuel Altered provisional No. 1 qualifier Pete Peterson was the closest to the 6.00 class index with a 6.121, but it came at a steep price. He exploded an engine, creating significant damage to question whether his No. 1 qualifying effort will be defended or he will have to throw in the towel.
“I’m going to admit it was driver error,” Peterson said. “I forgot to pull my chin strap down. So I got down there about a 1000-foot and my head was looking into the clouds above, so when I stepped off, and I kind of went forward in my seat and stepped back on the throttle and then all hell broke loose, it ended up putting the burst panel out and then once the burst panel was out, we had some fire. The fire went into the fuel vent tank and then blew up the fuel system. So not the way we wanted to end a 25-year career, but this was our last race and we were going to try to come out here and win it and just didn’t work out.”
Johnny West, Mark Whynaught, Kyle Hough, and Bill Windham rounded out the top five.
