2009 California Hot Rod Reunion

Untitled Document

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Saturday - Round One of Eliminations

6:00 p.m. The other difference between the March Meet and CHRR is that the first round of eliminations is run Saturday evening prior to the Cacklefest program.

With the sun setting in the west Green did his burnout for his race with Denver Schutz.

Both drivers left together.

But the race was over for Schutz very early when he smoked the tires hard before the tree.

To his credit, Schutz didn't give up and tried in vain to chase Green down. Great White took with win with a 6.055 at 230.65. After a nice pedal job Schutz carded a 7.041 at 218.81.

The crew was pleased along with the SRO crowd.

Sunday - Eliminations - Round Two

11:51 a.m. Following the pre race ceremonies, the second round of Top Fuel kicked off under another sunny sky.

For round two Green was paired with Rick Rogers in Butch Blair's "Fugowie".

Locked and loaded.

By just .003 seconds this race was over at the tree when Rogers went red.

Kono is the first to cheer over Rodger's red.

Going for lane choice in the semis, Green legged it through.

Had Rogers not left a tick early this would have been one hell of a drag race. Green got the win with a 5.983 at 222.27 but Rogers carded a slightly quicker 5.978 at 242.32.

The semi final would pit Green with #1 qualifier and 2009 champ Brett Harris. The maintenance for this one was check and check again. The guys didn't want to beat themselves by overlooking something.

Sunday - Eliminations - Semi Finals

2:50 p.m. As the final four rolled out of the lanes the show was on schedule. That would change.

Green did get lane choice and went to the favored left putting Harris in the right.

At the hit Green was out first but not by much.

By the 60' mark the cars were welded together.

Early on this looked to be a classic drag race until Harris broke an exhaust rocker stand which caused an ugly chain of events.

The broken rocker caused a chunk of piston to lodge under an intake valve which banged the blower. The blower burst panel did its job but when it blew out it caught and crimped the main oil line from the dry sump system. This caused instant back pressure which blew the filter off. The really ugly part was the massive oil down from the 300' mark to the turn off road.

With Harris dead in the water Green never missed a beat and went on to clock a sterling 5.879 at just 226.35.

"We're going to the final!"

Top Fuel Final

6:00 p.m. With the show running late due to the Harris oil down the finals were over an hour past their scheduled times.

With the sun going down and not wanting to take a chance of the track getting to cold for the nitro cars they were moved up to the beginning of the finals opposed to their normal position at the end of the show.

By virtue of getting the best of Rick Williamson in the semis Green's worthy opponent was the very popular Rick McGee in the Tedford & McGee car that calls Bakersfield its home track. Both drivers had laid down some stout numbers getting here so it was anybody's race.

Green had lane choice and once again took the left.

With a red light on their minds neither driver had a great light. McGee came out slightly ahead.

Before the 330' mark McGee was opening the gap but Green kept him in his sights.

It's true these two are good friends but that didn't mean they needed to get this close on the top end.

The purple car from Exter, CA. never missed a beat and held on for a stout 5.761 (low ET of the meet) at 247.38 to a game 5.919 at 252.17 win.

The first people to congratulate Darrell Tedford and the rest of the McGee crew was the guys from High Speed.

The win by McGee was not only deserved but very popular among his fans and peers. Nobody likes to lose but to a man the HSMS team agreed that if they had to finish second there was no one else they would rather get beaten by.

Sportsmanship to the max...

We'll end the race part with a couple of shots that scream for captions.

It is an annual tradition at the California Hot Rod Reunion to recognize 5 Honorees and a Grand Marshall (all of whom typify drag racing past) at a big affair Friday night at the host hotel. One of the 2009 Honorees was HSMS team member Walt Stevens and the entire gang, along with his family, was on hand to support him.

Walt with his wife Maria, daughter Cynthia, and granddaughter Desiree.

The crew had a table behind Walt's that included Tom Shelar, Rian Kono, Danny Porsche, Todd Shappie, Jennifer Luna, Brett Johansen, Roger McMartin, Erin and Sean Bellemeur and Troy Green.