This morning we woke up bright and early and spent our day at the Pomona Drag Strip watching the NHRA finals. Usually we go to the drags 2 times a year, in February and then again in November. This year though, we had a special engagement in February and only made it to Pomona in the fall.
Jeff started our morning right and made his us some yummy breakfast burritos. We met the rest of our group at my dad’s and then headed on down to the drag strip. We got there about a 1/2 hour later than we planned and the handicap parking was PACKED! The event staff does a horrible job of checking the handicap placards and a ton of people “borrow” parking decals and fill up the lot. We found one of the few last spots and then set up our tailgating party!
It was this time when I pulled out my camera to start taking pictures. I turned on my camera and got the “no memory card” message. ARGH! I made sure I charged my camera but forgot to take the dang memory card out of the laptop. All pictures today were taken on my phone-oh well.
Around 10:00am we began to walk in to the drags. The winds had really cleaned up the sky and you had a clear view of the mountains! Perfect drag weather.
It was an especially exciting race event because both the Top Fuel and Funny Car champions were still up in the air going into Pomona. The top fuel winner was decided early on (the first race) when Larry Dixon won. His team did a victory drive celebrating his Top Fuel 2010 Championship win.
Up next was one of my favorites, funny car! The first picture is of my favorite driver, Ashley Force Hood burning out her tires. Unfortunately, she wasn’t in the countdown race this year but she did a good job and I have a feeling 2011 will be her year! Her father, John Force was in the countdown and in fact was in the running for the championship. His competitor Matt Hagan went out in the first round and all John needed to do was win his next two races to clinch the championship.
After the first round (John Force won, one down and one more to go!) we walked out to the car to eat. Jeff had brought hot dogs and brawts with chili and chips.
After lunch and some drinks, we walked back in to watch some more races. John Force won his second race-clinching the Funny Car 2010 Championship! We walked around and visited the pits taking some fun race pictures in between.
One of the best parts of walking around the pits is meeting some of the drivers of top fuel or funny car. All of them are so personable and fan friendly. We were able to catch two drivers, Melanie Troxel and Ashley Force Hood! Danny took the picture of me and Melanie and we were teasing him he lacks the Japanese gene of good photography. For my picture with Ashley, we made sure Jeff had the camera.
John Force’s trailer-winner of the 2010 Funny Car Championship AND 2010 Pomona Finals Funny Car winner.
Antron Brown, one of my favorite top fuel drivers. He was getting his car ready for the final race and ended up becoming the 2010 Pomona Finals Top Fuel winner.
Meanwhile, the girls were up to their usually silliness. I especially love Kalea’s eyes!
Can’t wait for the Winternationals in February 2011!
