On September 20, 2009, the NHRA staged the first modern era four-wide nitro exhibition at zMAX Dragway in Concord, NC. In Funny

Car, Mike Neff beat out his competition that included John Force, Tim Wilkerson and Del Worsham, winning the race on a hole shot. The Top Fuel portion of the event belonged to Spencer Massey as he defeated Brandon Bernstein, Morgan Lucas and Antron Brown.

Force described the experience as, "I haven't had this much fun since I played high school football and we rushed the cheerleader showers."

The NHRA chose NASCAR’s backyard as a platform to showcase their unique style of four-wide racing. Running in the shadows of Lowe’s Motor Speedway, the NHRA launched 32,000 horsepower down four lanes of concrete drag strip; the rough equivalent of 43 stock cars rumbling two wide towards the green flag on one of the most famous 1.5 mile circle tracks.

On September 20, 2009, the NHRA staged the first modern era four-wide nitro exhibition at zMAX Dragway in Concord, NC. In Funny

Car, Mike Neff beat out his competition that included John Force, Tim Wilkerson and Del Worsham, winning the race on a hole shot. The Top Fuel portion of the event belonged to Spencer Massey as he defeated Brandon Bernstein, Morgan Lucas and Antron Brown.

Force described the experience as, "I haven't had this much fun since I played high school football and we rushed the cheerleader showers."

The NHRA chose NASCAR’s backyard as a platform to showcase their unique style of four-wide racing. Running in the shadows of Lowe’s Motor Speedway, the NHRA launched 32,000 horsepower down four lanes of concrete drag strip; the rough equivalent of 43 stock cars rumbling two wide towards the green flag on one of the most famous 1.5 mile circle tracks.

Monitoring elapsed times for two nitro cars can be complex, but on Sunday afternoon the NHRA undertook the challenge. Graham Light, the NHRA's VP of Operations, said the sanctioning body analyzed everything from timing to safety before giving the exhibition the green light.

“The timing was in place because they [zMax Dragway] had done some testing in those lanes and they did run some street type cars four wide,” Light said.

Special bulbs were added above the existing stage and pre-stage lights on the Christmas tree so that all four drivers would be able to know the competitors in the other lines were properly staged.

“That’s critical with the fuel cars because once they pre-stage they stage them up to three seconds, because they go on the high side,” Light added.

Track preparation was no cakewalk either.

“We had two lanes that have been used very little and we had to put a lot of rubber down,” said Light, of the steps to prepare the seldom-used lanes to the right of the regular strip. “What we did, we came in a couple days early with our Safety Safari people and our tire drag machine. They were extensively prepared throughout the event through dragging, washing and spraying.”

If the NHRA devoted a lion's share of attention to logistics, safety was given the attention of two lions.

“Well, we've got to be prepared for the worst case [scenario] and that’s four serious accidents,” Light said. “At any race we are prepared for two. It's a matter of basically doubling your emergency response people on the top end and track side and the equipment that you have and we've done that. I am very comfortable with the safety aspect.”

Preparation included extra emergency trucks staffed with double the personnel with one crew on each side of the two tracks. There were extra medical units on standby as well as a second helicopter nearby.

The event went off like clockwork as evidenced by the thunderous cheers from the grandstands.

"It was a great success," said NHRA President Tom Compton. "You saw the fans on their feet before the cars even came out here, just waiting for it. One of our own workers said he had chills. It was fantastic. It was great to utilize what we have here. It's such a gorgeous place with four lane capability. I was just as excited as anyone else.
 
"I can tell you we have four lanes at a beautiful place. We're coming here twice next year. We're certainly going to work on ways we can use it and entertain the fans; that's for sure."

As for Light, he never imagined that one day he would witness some of drag racing’s modern day accomplishments much less a four-wide run with nitro cars.

“I also never envisioned being in a beautiful facility like this,” said Light. “I never envisioned officiating with 300 mile an hour race cars. A lot of people used to ask Wally if you ever envisioned the sport to come to this and in the early days we didn’t. Wally started it as an alternative to street racing and I started it as a hobby. It was even a hobby when I drove Top Fuel cars; people did it as a hobby then. It's turned into a profession. It's big money. It's very costly. There are a lot of people making a very decent living and I think we all need to be proud of that.”

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