Upset Winner at March Meet!

A ferocious 27 car field was entered for the fabled NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series “March Meet”.  When the smoke cleared off late on Sunday afternoon March 9th — there was an unexpected winner…

That Funny Car final lined up Dan Horan verus James Day. On paper Horan had this round covered. Horan had been in the sixes and sevens consistently as Day had broke into the sevens only a couple of rounds before. Day rolled in first after both cars finished their burnouts. Horan took a bit to roll in. Day was having none of the perceived shenanigans and rolled in deep, turning the top bulb off just as Horan lit the staging bulb. After a short breath the ambers flashed and they were off. Day drilled the start with a .043 RT as Horan seemed dazed by the top bulb going out and cut a way late .200 RT. From the starting line no one could tell whose race this was. It was obvious that Horan was running Day down, but could he catch him? Then the chutes popped out of Day’s car before the finish line kicking up a cloud of dust. The team reacted with angst but it was quickly reversed into elation as the win light turned on in Day’s lane.

Day ran a 5.883 @ 228.31 mph. Horan ran out of racetrack. Horan’s 5.726 @ 255.19 mph wasn’t enough to overcome Day’s hole shot. James Day proved again why we run the race.

Day was quoted “This is just amazing! It really hasn’t set in yet. Dale Pulde is my all-time hero. He was text messaging me just fifteen minutes ago. He is the greatest funny car driver on the planet. I love him to death, but this is huge man, to put your name up there with Prudhomme, Garlits, Beadle and all them guys. You can’t beat that, this is huge.”

Indeed the whole team was beaming with accomplishment, pride and maybe a little disbelief in the winner’s circle.

Defending March Meet Champion Tim Boychuk (from Edmonton) was a shocking DNQ

Event Essentials:  March Meet at Bakersfield CA (March 7-9th, 2014)

Photos by:  Marc Gewertz