If one is a Nitro Funny Car racer, this weekend’s March Meet is the tournament where one makes a statement — and a proclamation of legend.

Famoso Raceway’s 52nd March Meet has all the markings of being an epochal event, if not just historic. For the first time in drag racing since the AHRA/PRO National Challenge at Tulsa International Raceway in August, 1973, nearly two score of honest-to-goodness blown-on-nitro AA/Funny Cars will attempt to qualify for a spot in a 32-car eliminator.

For Funny Car driver “Nitro Kitty” Mendy Fry, however, merely filing an entry for the race was daunting enough. During her end-of-year racing hiatus, Frau Fry suddenly parted ways with her last team. Similarly, Donnie Couch, her on-again/off-again partner-in-grime (and West Coast Funny Car Factory founder) was himself between projects, kicking the proverbial can against the shop doors, waiting for an opportunity to present itself.

None did. Until racecar owner Gary Messenger offered up his dormant (and for sale) Future Flash ’73 Charger, a machine that both Couch and Fry competed with in 2008. A deal was struck: Install a short block, acquire a bunch of odds’n’ends and nitro-strength hardware, buy a drum of fuel and cases of oil, borrow a trailer and get thee to Bakersfield.

Thus Donnie and Mendy got proactive over the winter, calling in a myriad of favors for donated expendables for their borrowed flopper, now rechristened the West Coast Funny Car Factory/Nitro Kitty Charger. Because of these efforts, this weekend Messenger’s machine will enter the copious cavalcade of fuel coupes jousting for entry in what has the potential to be the mother of all Funny Car races, with Couch turning the wrenches and Fry swapping pedals.

NITRO KITTY RACING MARCH MEET NOTES:

Among those ponying up parts, pieces and petroleum products for this bi-partisan, joint effort of Nitro Kitty Racing, Donnie Couch’s West Coast Funny Car Factory and Gary Messenger Ltd.: Hyevon Choppers, Lucas Oil, SCE Gaskets, Molinari, M/T Tires, Justice Bros., Burning Motorhome Promotions and MCC Construction.

Advisory March Meet Nitro Funny Car Schedule: 1^st round of Qualifying: Friday, March 5^th, 2 PM. 2^nd round of qualifying, Saturday, March 6^th, Noon. 1^st Round Eliminations: Saturday, 3 pm. Further eliminations, Sunday, March 7^th, 11 AM.

Follow the entire event via online streaming at bangshift.com . Track NKR’s efforts at facebook.com/nitrokitty .

To watch the live podcast, point your browser to http://www.speedsceneracing.com at 6 pm PST. Moreover, call in 1-800-809-0802, get on the air and join in the bench racing! Among tonight’s topics up for discussion: Mendy’s 2009 season in review (including what it is like to race  Nitro Funny Cars  in the NHRA Heritage Series with luminaries like Roland Leong and Donnie Couch), as well as a glimpse into her racing plans for 2010, including discussions with NHRA and IHRA Top Fuel teams.

"Nitro Kitty" Mendy Fry on Speed Scene Live

Live! From "Speed Scene Live"!

Above is footage of the first pass back with the old gang of Messenger and Couch: We clocked a 6.05@237 mph yesterday at Pomona. Unfortunately, upon gettng off the throttle, a connecting rod _disconnected_. So ends the weekend’s exhibition at the NHRA AutoClub Finals for the Nitro Kitty Charger.

18TH CALIFORNIA HOT ROD REUNION, Bakersfield, CA, October 18th – With twenty-eight machines lighting it off and jostling for the eight-quickest positions during Saturday’s AA/Funny Car Eliminator qualifying round, one has to expect some broken hearts — and broken parts.

For “Nitro Kitty” Mendy Fry and her mount, McCain’s Bomb Squad, that meant a broken rear end — and one that was impractical to mend.  At the shift-point during the first of what should have been two qualifying runs, a puff of smoke came out of the ‘73 Duster’s headers, a signal that the pinion gear lost more teeth than two cowboys in a bar fight, and the damage spread throughout the drivetrain, including destroying the axle and snapping a steel input shaft like a pretzel. With power to the slicks dis-engaged, Fry coasted to a quarter-mile elapsed time of 7.13 at 131 mph, netting a provisional 19th position, insufficient to qualify for Sunday’s race.

Which was academic, because after the damage was assessed, in hopes of making Sunday’s qualifying round, a frantic search for a replacement rear axle was met with sympathetic responses from members of the Nitro Funny Car community, most specifically by the teams of Claude LaVoie and Todd Lesenko, but to no avail. And after McCain’s Bomb Squad spent the night disassembling the drivetrain in hopes of putting it back together in time for more qualifying, the team’s season came to end for want of a spare axle. Which begs the question: How do you mend a broken heart? Or even a  broken rear end? -30-

Nitro Funny Car racer Mendy Fry at the Las Vegas Strip

We’re en route to Vegas, ready to make some exhibition passes at this weekend’s NHRA Heritage Series “Speed Spectacular” at the Las Vegas Strip.

Word is that a trio of other vintage-style, nitro-burning Funny Cars will be joining us: As Drag Racing Online reports, these other competitios are “Nathan Bugg in the ‘Li’l Nate’ Barracuda, Dennis Taylor in the ‘Future Flash’ Dodge Charger, (and) the ‘Beach City Chevrolet’ topless Corvette driven by Ed Schwarz.”

Come catch us pound the pavement before you hunker down next weekend to watch “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” As motorsports writer Jeff Wolf says in his colum today: “… (T)here’s enough action on television and at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to feed your fix until the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR Sprint Cup Coca-Cola 600 run May 24.” -30-

Drag Fest final-round burnout. Fierce! (photo by Cole Coonce)

After qualifying #2 at DragFest on Saturday, my team and I made our way through Funny Car Eliminator on Sunday and faced off against the potent Ed Dougan and the Fighting Irish machine in the final round. Neither myself nor the guys had ever claimed an event win in a Nitro Funny Car — although I came within a whisker one year ago at the NHRA Heritage Series race in Las Vegas while driving the Future Flash Charger, when, unfortunately, an errant connecting rod punched a hole in the block, oil got under the right slick and… well, we don’t need to revisit the aftermath of all that, do we?

My second appearance in a Nitro Funny Car final round was every bit as exciting as my first, and thankfully, not nearly as catastrophic.

I did my burnout first. Unbeknownst to me our competition was in trouble, struggling to even make it into the water box. After an anxious minute and a half of their team frantically trying to disengage the blower starter while I sat waiting with my motor cackling, Irish-pilot Ed Dougan does a brief burnout, and pre-stages. I follow suit, we both stage, the light goes green and I am off the line first. Dougan is hot on my tail and keeps his foot planted on the gas, driving around me by half-track and holding a four-foot lead. At the top end, the Fighting Irish clock a victorious 6.04 to trump our 6.12.

"Fighting Irish" in the Drag Fest Final Round (photo by Cole Coonce)

It was a tremendous drag race; one that was decided at the finish line by hundredths of second. But no matter how exciting, allow me to say that this bridesmaid business blows! Bummer!

As a final note from DragFest, we put in five strong passes in the car over the weekend. Further to that, win, lose or draw, going rounds is great experience for all involved, and enables the entire team to gain confidence, solidify and work as a unit. Moreover, it provided ample opportunity to drive down the return road and toss out baseball caps emblazoned with one of associate sponsor’s logos! (“Jeg’s,” natch…)

(photo by Paul Flores)

Next up: In two weeks, the team returns to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for exhibition passes at “The Strip’s” Second Annual “Speed Spectacular” (its NHRA Heritage Series event). Ciao for now, Cyber-Nitro Kats and Kittens.

Smokin' the skins!

Squadsters Smokey Alleman, Mike Porter and Paolo Galli

Roland Leong and Paolo Galli guide Mendy Fry into the beams

McCain's Bomb Squad on the Big End

All the tests are done. Next stop: The March Meet in Bakersfield. (Weren’t we just there?)

If you are coming, her’s a schedule from the NHRA Heritage Series p.r. dept.:

SCHEDULE (subject to change)

FRI., MAR. 6 – Gates open at 7 a.m. Qualifying and time trials: 8 a.m. Nitro qualifying: 2 p.m.

SAT., MAR. 7 - Gates open at 7 a.m. Qualifying, time trials and exhibition runs begin at 8 a.m. Nitro qualifying at 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m.

SUN., MAR. 8 - Gates open at 7 a.m. (Note: Daylight savings time in effect). Exhibition runs occur throughout the day beginning at 8 a.m. Eliminations begin at 9 a.m. Opening Ceremonies begin at 10:45 a.m. Final Eliminations begin at 11 a.m. Winner’s Circle Awards at 5 p.m.

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Nitro Kitty says, “Be there or be in Buttonwillow.”

(photos by Cole Coonce)

First round of qualifying for the 51st March Meet is Friday!

People ask me: “Where do you post your 2009 schedule?” I often get asked that question, and now I can point them to this post, detailing appearances by McCain’s Bomb Squad Nitro Funny Car. They are as follows:

In preparation for an attempt at conquering Funny Car Eliminator at the upcoming and prestigious 51st March Meet, Mendy Fry, Roland Leong and McCain’s Bomb Squad have entered this weekend’s test-and-tune session at Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield.

This will be the last opportunity for Leong to implement and/or check out some changes in the Bomb Squad tune-up, before proper competition begins at the March Meet (which opens with qualifying on Friday, March 6th and ends with eliminations on Sunday, March 8th).

According to Famoso track manager Blake Bowser  in a report on Drag Racing Online, this weekend will be fat with AA/Fuel Dragsters and Heritage Series Nitro Funny Cars shaking off the cobwebs from a long winter, as well as making final adjustments to their combinations. He said: “We’ll have nitro cars running every couple of hours, probably starting around 11:30AM, but this is still a two-day test with an $80 entry fee per car for the weekend. Gates will open at 8 AM on both days, with cars going down the track at 9, but we’ll be closing at 5PM.”

The March Meet is the first competitive event in the 2009 NHRA Heritage Points Series, a season-long tournament that Fry and McCain’s Bomb Squad are dedicated to claiming.

Addtional information on weekend testing or tickets for the March 6–8 51st March Meet are at http://www.famosoraceway.com.