2001 season

the ADRA debacle

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Many of you already know the ADRA story, so, rather than rehash the whole thing, I'm going to concentrate on the Fuel Altered part of the program...at the inaugural race, the West Coast Reunion, Easter weekend, 2001 at Top Gun Raceway in Fallon, Nevada.

The festivities started out at the Holiday Inn in Reno, Nevada, where a small display was setup out in the parking lot. In attendence were Kent Terry and Jason Howell with their AA/FD's, Brent and Vicki Fanning with their new "Nitro Cow" 71 Charger funny car, and later in the afternoon, the Winged Express showed up...here you see Brent Fanning (in black cowboy hat) come around to check out the Wing...

"Sumbitch."

"Wonder if I could get Vicki in this thing?"

"Full Throttle" Richard Heath looks a bit bewildered by all the attention, while crewguy Rick Green chats up the spectators.

Fuel Altereds came in two sizes at Fallon. Here's the jumbo, non-economy size, out of mothballs for the first time in probably a decade, Richard Langson's "Texas Ranger".

Langson hammers it off the line...

The other Jumbo Fuel Altered, out of Sparks, Nevada, Ricky Ruiz.

Butterflies wide open, Ruiz takes off on a Friday night qualifying pass.

And you just can't keep old dogs from learning new tricks...Dave Hough built a NEW Nanook, almost like his 1973 version. But, the driving chores have been passed on from father to son. Rick Hough shoes the Dyda Race Car Engineering chassis down the 1/4 mile.

Towing up to the staging lanes at Fallon.

It's BLUE!
The Hankins family's new hot rod, a repop of Bob Hankin's Blue Blazer.
Another example of passing the torch, Bob's son Brett handles the cockpit duties these days.

Saturday afternoon qualifying, Brett Hankins gets to the end of his burnout...

And he's off!

Friday night, and there's nothing quite like Mike Boyd driving the Winged Express...