LEAVING NOTHING ON THE TABLE - Tyler Hilton and his Great Expectations team invested considerably in their Top Fuel program before the California Hot Rod Reunion. That investment was purchasing a championship-proven dragster previously campaigned by Tony Bartone and Steve Boggs in hopes of helping Tyler have a realistic shot of winning the 2022 NHRA Heritage Series Top Fuel Championship. Well, it paid off for them. 

Hilton rolled into this weekend's 30th annual California Hot Rod Reunion, second in the Top Fuel points, just two rounds behind leader Bret Williamson for the Top Fuel Championship. Hilton not only got around Williamson to win the Top championship, but he also qualified number one, set low elapsed time with a career-best 5.592, and won the race, leaving nothing on the table for the competition. 

"It's like a dream," Hilton said. "Low ET and win the race? Yeah. We weren't really putting too much pressure on it. We were just trying to get the car to go A to B, not hurt anything, and just go a little quicker each time. Just read the racetrack and do what we needed to do."

The drama for the Top Fuel championship started in qualifying when points leader Bret Williamson failed to qualify, effectively ending his hopes of winning the title and opening the door for the three guys behind him in points. 

One of those guys who still had a shot for the championship was Bryan Hall, who qualified in the number eight spot and would match up against Hilton in round one on Sunday Morning. Hall, who had a massive engine explosion during the final qualifying session on Saturday night, controlled his destiny. If Hall could beat Hilton in round one, the drama would begin as Hall or Adam Sorokin would need to win the race to win the championship. 

Hilton would stop all of that from happening. Hilton defeated Hall in the opening round, setting low elapsed time of the race with a career-best 5.592 at 248 miles per hour and officially clinching the 2022 Top Fuel championship. 

With the championship now wrapped up, Hilton and his Great Expectations team turned their attention to trying to put the cherry on top by winning the race.  

In the semifinals, Hilton squared off against the former champion in the class Pete Wittenberg. Hilton would get the advantage on the starting line and not look back as Wittenberg smoked the tires at the hit, and Hilton sailed on through for the win, running a 5.788 at 210 miles per hour to advance into the final round. 

It was a fitting matchup in the final round as Hilton faced the second-best Top Fuel car on the property that weekend in Pete Kaiser. 

Kaiser, who tuned Dan Horan to the 2021 Heritage series Top Fuel championship, jumped back behind the wheel of a Top Fuel Dragster for the first time in six years, and it seemed as if he never left. 

Doing just a one-off race in the car that he tuned to the championship last season, Kaiser qualified in the number two position on the weekend and took down some heavy hitters in the class. 

Kaiser kicked off his day by defeating Jim Murphy in the opening round with a 5.684 at 258 miles per hour before having a bye into the final round as his opponent Adam Sorokin could not make the call in the semifinals. 

As the sun set on the 2022 NHRA Heritage Series season, and in the final round at Bakersfield, the final round between Hilton and Kaiser would not disappoint. 

Both drivers thundered down the track with header flames high in the sky, with Hilton coming out on top, running an impressive 5.645 at 238 miles per hour to Kaiser's 5.704 at 251 miles per hour, putting an exclamation point on his weekend in Bakersfield.  

"We've been to a couple of finals here," Hilton said. "It's Bakersfield. It's Famoso. The history of it's significant to us too. The history of Top Fuel and nitro racing. And so that's part of it too. So yeah, it means a lot to win this race, for sure."

While this may have been the greatest weekend of racing for the young Hilton, he believes this is just the beginning of a lot more success to come and is looking forward to the competition next season. 

"I don't think we're done yet," Hilton said. "I think it was a good introduction to start next year off too. We'll do some good work over the off-season and get ready for March."

"There are two or three new Top Fuel cars in the class that are coming out probably in March. And the class is growing. It's going to make everyone have to work harder. So I think the bigger the class gets, the better the competition will get. And the times and people, how they can run will get lower and lower. And it's going to be interesting next year for sure."