Photos by Dave Kommel, Jeff & Mike Burghardt; Videos by Darin Williams, Les Mayhew
QUALIFYING NOTEBOOK – BAKERSFIELD ALWAYS DELIVERS, AND 2026 IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE
THE FIELDS ARE SET – Tyler Hester in Nostalgia Top Fuel, Jimmy Kelso in Nostalgia Funny Car and Greg Leahy in Fuel Altered finished qualifying at Famoso Dragstrip right where they started the day. The numbers behind them changed, but the No. 1 qualifiers didn’t.
Kelso’s historic 5.484-second blast at 266.27 mph remained untouched, while Hester’s 5.708 at 256.41 mph held up as the best of the AA/Fuel Dragsters. Leahy improved to a 6.008, coming within eight-thousandths of Fuel Altered’s 6.00-second index.
Friday’s rain limited professional qualifying to one session, leaving Saturday’s two attempts to settle the fields for Sunday’s eliminations at the Good Vibrations California Hot Rod Reunion. There was plenty of movement behind the leaders, but nobody found enough to dislodge them.
Kelso, who became the quickest Nostalgia Funny Car driver in history Friday, watched Nathan Sitko get closest with a 5.522 at 263.00 mph. Jon Capps followed at 5.557, Jeff Arend ran 5.561 and Todd Plate posted a 5.588.
Ryan Horan secured the 16th and final qualifying position with a 5.799 at 252.73 mph. The entire field was separated by .315 seconds.
Kelso’s record run was his first full quarter-mile pass in the car, and a planned Thursday test session never happened. He had figured the car might run in the mid-5.60s, but his first qualifying attempt changed those expectations considerably.
“And I thought it was going to go mid-60, but it came on and it was on like Donkey Kong out there,” Kelso said. “It was hauling the mail and I just held on.”
Pete Kaiser was second in Nostalgia Top Fuel with a 5.721 at 257.80 mph, followed by four-time champion Tyler Hilton at 5.802. Frank McBee qualified fourth at 5.915, while Mike Sorokin anchored the eight-car field with a 6.099.
Hester, who hadn’t raced all summer, admitted there were questions about whether the track would hold his combination. He got his answer on the first qualifying attempt.
“Well, we didn’t know if it was going to stick,” Hester said. “We just rolled the dice and see what would happen, but it stuck and went 70. It feels good to come off the trailer after not doing anything all summer and lay down one like that.”
Fuel Altered qualifying had its own complications, with Chris Bates, Brandon Seraphone and Mathew Leonard all running quicker than the category’s 6.00-second index Friday. Their five-second performances were too quick to count toward qualifying.
Leahy’s 6.008 led the field, with Bates recovering to qualify second at 6.021. Vince Karstetter followed at 6.135, with Leonard fourth at 6.206.
Eliminations begin Sunday at 11 a.m.
WELCOME BACK, CHAMP – Tyler Hilton has been through enough in a Nostalgia Top Fuel dragster to know the difference between a bad day and one that could have ended considerably worse. His crash at Redding, Calif., qualified as the latter, and Saturday at the Good Vibrations California Hot Rod Reunion, the four-time champion was back doing what he knows best.
Hilton qualified third with a 5.802 at 236.22 mph in a brand-new dragster, earning a first-round meeting with Bret Williamson on Sunday. It was his first competition since a rear tire exploded at approximately 253 mph in Redding, sending his previous car into the wall before it overturned.
The crash left Hilton with a concussion, bruised ribs and a destroyed race car. It also left him with something he hadn’t experienced quite like this before, even after surviving a serious fire earlier in his career.
Hilton made no attempt to downplay the severity of the Redding accident. Even compared to the fire he survived earlier in his career, this one was worse.
“This was worse,” Hilton said.
Getting back into the cockpit wasn’t entirely without apprehension. Hilton admitted the nerves were there until the engine fired and the familiar routine took over.
“I was a little nervous at first, but as soon as the motor started and we did the burnout, it was like business as usual,” Hilton said.
The first run wasn’t perfect, but Hilton wasn’t expecting perfection from a new chassis. The car shook, and the team had some sorting out to do before it could begin leaning on the combination.
“It was good, it shook, we were a little over center for the track conditions, but just getting back in the car and doing a burnout and everything went well as far as that’s concerned, so yeah, it felt good,” Hilton said.
The replacement dragster features a larger cockpit area and additional padding, changes made following the Redding accident. Hilton and his team also spent qualifying adjusting the weight distribution and wing angle to get the front of the car planted.
“We made some changes, just new chassis, just trying to figure out what it wants and added some weight in the nose and changed the wing angle a little bit, just trying to get it planted a little harder in the front, so yeah, I think we’re where we need to be,” Hilton said.
Hilton arrived at Bakersfield leading Pete Kaiser by 140 points in the Heritage Series championship standings, putting a fifth title within reach.
FINDING THEIR WAY – Imagine a bunch of Major League Baseball players spending their off weekend playing recreational softball. That’s probably the best comparison for Dustin Davis and several members of Tony Stewart’s Top Fuel operation, who spend their time away from NHRA competition racing a front-engine Nostalgia Top Fuel dragster.
Except there’s nothing recreational about these machines, something Davis and driver Austin Arnerich have learned over three seasons of trying to tame a dragster once campaigned by Heritage Series legend Jim Murphy.
Saturday at the Good Vibrations California Hot Rod Reunion, Arnerich entered the final qualifying session outside the field before driving Davis’ dragster to a 5.957 at 248.41 mph. The run vaulted him into the No. 5 position at Famoso Dragstrip.
For a team accustomed to modern Top Fuel machinery, figuring out a front-engine dragster has been a humbling experience. Davis admits some of the problems were self-inflicted.
“We’re behind where we want to be,” Davis said. “I think that in the first two years, we didn’t put a lot of attention to it, to be 100% honest with you. We were busy with some other programs and that kind of thing.”
Davis purchased Murphy’s entire WWII Nostalgia Top Fuel operation but initially strayed from the combination Murphy had spent years perfecting. Eventually, Davis realized the smartest move was getting back to what already worked.
“I didn’t done a great service to Jim Murphy on how we’ve run this car,” Davis said. “I mean, he was a pro, and when I got ahold of the thing, we kind of made some decisions on things that went away from the program that he had developed.”
Murphy and longtime associate Daniel Wilkinson have since helped Davis straighten out the program. Arnerich, meanwhile, has discovered that driving one of these machines requires considerably more than experience in other dragsters.
“Steep learning curve. Very, very challenging,” Arnerich said. “One of the hardest cars I’ve ever tried to drive. I really gives a lot of respect for the guys that come out here, pull them out of the trailer and make a good clean lick down the racetrack.”
Davis plans to expand the team’s schedule beyond the Heritage Series, including match racing and additional testing. For now, Saturday’s five-second run was a welcome return on three seasons of work.
“We’ll get there. We got to work on a couple things and it takes laps,” Davis said. “We’ll just keep putting laps on this thing and we’ll get there.”
THE ‘OLE FAMILY TRADITION – Travis Shumake took a rather unusual route back to Funny Car racing. He started his professional career in Top Fuel, but these days he’s finding something in Nostalgia Funny Car that no amount of horsepower or speed could have delivered.
He’s finding pieces of his father, the late Tripp Shumake, through a replica of the Funny Car his dad once drove and the people who remember watching him race.
At the Good Vibrations California Hot Rod Reunion at Famoso Dragstrip, Shumake was making his sixth Nostalgia Funny Car appearance of the season driving for Dave Benjamin. The car carries the familiar colors and markings of his father’s machine, with former NHRA Funny Car champion Del Worsham lending a helping hand.
For Shumake, getting back underneath a Funny Car body was something he had been trying to accomplish long before his Top Fuel career took shape.
“It’s been so neat to come back to what I was trying to do in the beginning,” Shumake said. “Five years ago I started licensing in funny cars and now to be back driving a funny car, now the sixth race of the season with Dave Benjamin and a replica of my dad’s car with Del Worsham and helping me. Pretty cool way to end this season.”
Shumake still has a couple of races remaining with the Legends Series, but he’s already convinced he belongs in a Funny Car. His explanation for winding up in Top Fuel in the first place was vintage Shumake.
“I think I was accidentally in a dragster because I hit a wall one time,” Shumake said. “So I’m glad to be back behind, underneath the body.”
He readily admits these cars demand considerably more work from the driver than a modern Top Fuel dragster. There’s also the matter of having to shift gears, something his previous ride didn’t require.
“They’re substantially tougher to drive,” Shumake said. “And I got to shift this thing. There’s so much happening instead of just aiming and pointing.”
But the real payoff hasn’t necessarily come from anything happening on the racetrack. It’s coming from people walking through the pits, recognizing the car and remembering the man who once made those colors famous.
“It is neat to be in the same kind of roll cage and environment with the same logos outside, but the cool part for me is the people that I’m meeting here at the reunion that are coming up and saying, ‘I know Tripp. I knew him. Why do you drive this car?'” Shumake said. “I’d say, ‘Oh, I’m his son.'”
Those conversations have become an unexpected bonus of the reunion. Shumake estimated 15 people had approached him that day with memories of his father and Johnny Loper.
“So I think it’s connecting me to this piece of my father I never though I’d have a chance to,” Shumake said.
JUST A PASSION – Ernie Manoleas hauled a dragster 2,400 miles from Michigan to Bakersfield, Calif., knowing full well it wasn’t going to make a pass down the dragstrip. He wasn’t chasing a trophy, either, just the satisfaction of bringing back a race car that had disappeared more than 60 years ago.
That’s the kind of thinking you’ll find among the gearheads who participate in the Nitro Revival Cacklefest at the Good Vibrations California Hot Rod Reunion.
Manoleas recreated the legendary Logghe-Marsh-Steffey dragster, reportedly destroyed in a Florida crash. According to Manoleas, the original was the world’s fastest unblown dragster in 1964, running 7.92 seconds at 187 mph.
His fascination began in junior high school through his friendship with John Logghe, who never tired of talking about the car.
“I grew up knowing about this car,” Manoleas said. “My best friend was John Logghe, because it’s a Logghe Marsh Steffey car, and this was his favorite car.”
Recreating it required more than collecting old parts. Michigan fabricator Andy Gemmete reconstructed much of the chassis using photographs, while Manoleas tracked down period-correct equipment, including the McGurk Tri-Drive, Enderle injection components and an unusual dry-sump oiling system.
“We did a lot of reverse engineering out of photographs and pictures that Ernie had from the collection of books he’s gotten, and then we jigged it up on a surface plate,” Gemmete said. “And then just started from there.”
But the best part wasn’t the machinery.
John Marsh, whose father, Jim Marsh, drove the original dragster, was selected to sit behind the wheel during the Cacklefest. Jim died in 1999, but his son helped recreate the car, contributing machining, welding and fuel injection work.
There would be no push start this year because the team was still sorting out the newly completed machine. After decades of waiting, nobody was in a hurry.
For Marsh, getting to sit where his father once sat was worth considerably more than any trophy.
“Oh, it’s very special,” Marsh said. “Very special to me to see that my family’s car is back here at Bakersfield.”
SEAN BELLEMEUR HAS SIX CHAMPIONSHIPS, BUT HIS ALTERED STILL KEEPS HIM HONEST – Sean Bellemeur has made a habit of beating up on the competition in NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car. Fresh off his sixth world championship, including three straight, Bellemeur apparently figures the best way to relax is by driving something considerably more difficult.
At the Good Vibrations California Hot Rod Reunion, Bellemeur was back behind the wheel of the family’s blown-alcohol altered, a car with plenty of horsepower, little aerodynamic help and absolutely no respect for championship credentials.
“It’s blown-alcohol, clutch cars, and whether it’s got a funny car body on it or an altered body, this is awesome,” Bellemeur said. “I get to race with my dad and have a really competitive car and a very, very difficult car to drive. It’s awesome. I have every bit as much fun driving this car as I do the funny car.”
Bellemeur’s dominance in Top Alcohol Funny Car, driving for Tony Bartone with Steve Boggs tuning, has made him one of the category’s most successful drivers. But nostalgia racing isn’t something he discovered after becoming a champion.
It’s where he got his start.
After graduating from junior dragsters, Bellemeur and his parents attended the March Meet and discovered front-engine dragsters. The family built an injected-alcohol dragster, eventually added a blower and progressed through Nostalgia Top Fuel before moving into Alcohol Funny Car.
The altered is actually the family’s former Alcohol Funny Car without its body. It still carries a Brad Anderson engine, blower, three-speed transmission and clutch, but without the downforce that helps keep a Funny Car pointed in the right direction.
“The difference is it goes a little bit slower and has no downforce,” Bellemeur said. “So it’s got a mind of its own and I love every second of it. It’s awesome.”
Racing alongside his father, Rick, also gives Bellemeur a connection to Pro Comp’s glory days, when drivers such as Dale Armstrong and Brad Anderson were making their reputations on Southern California dragstrips.
Bellemeur was born in 1981, too late to experience much of that era. Given the opportunity, he’d gladly trade a few laps in the present for a chance to race those legends.
“God, I wish I could have been alive back then, but this is a close second. And once again, I’m loving every second of it.”
