March 2022 • By Tony Thacker
Presented by RatTrapRacing.com & USAutomotive.co.uk

We’ve been waiting for the 64th annual Good Vibrations March Meet since 2020 and despite inclement weather forecasts the event proved to be everything we hoped it would be. We tagged along with Rich Guasco’s ‘Pure Hell’ AA/Fuel Altered team and consequently were in the thick of the nitro action of which there was plenty.

The March Meet can trace its history way back to 1959 when it was under the sanction of the Smokers Car Club and was known as the US Fuel & Gas Championships. It was always an ‘outlaw’ event that attracted the biggest names in drag racing from ‘Big Daddy’ Don Garlits to Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme. The race was always known as a Top Fuel race when sometimes more than 100 fuelers attended. These days, however, the TF ranks are much thinner and this year there were a dozen diggers as well at 23 nitro burning Funny Cars and 11 Fuel Altereds of which Pure Hell was one. Cost, of course, is a factor. Just the fuel to get the rigs and people there has almost doubled since 2020 and a 42-gallon barrel of nitro was rumored to be $1,900 at the event. Pure Hell, as an example, uses six gallons of 90% nitro per run and they made five runs—you do the math.

Pure Hell is a classic, short-wheelbase Altered that owner Guasco has been campaining since 1964. Originally it was powered by a blown small-block Chevy in a 92-inch wheelbase chassis and driven by  Dale ‘The Snail’ Emery with Guasco doing the tuning. Hell was the first AA/FA to go over 180 mph and under 8.50 seconds. In 1968, the Chevy was swapped for a Chrysler Hemi and and Hell went 207 mph. The early car’s best ET was 7.27 with a top speed of 214 mph.

In 1992, with the growing interest in nostalgia drag racing, Guasco found his old car and restored it but after racing it for a few years decided to have Dave Uyehara build a new 106-inch wheelbase car. That car went 6.36 and 238 mph. In 1999, Guasco retired again but was talked out of it again in 2009 when he fielded the latest iteration that has run a best of 5.92 and 244 mph with Brian Hope at the butterfly.

Spending the weekend with iconic racer Rich Guasco was heaven on earth as he, his family, daughter Jill, Kevin, Hannah and William and the rest of the team: Scott Campbell, EJ Kowalski and Ron Rogers welcomed us into their pits to watch as they battled the field. Due to the weather and scheduling we only made one qualifying run on Friday and another on Saturday before three rounds of eliminations on Sunday when the weather was perfect. Going into the eliminations, Brian was mid field with a best of 6.18 but red lit in the 2nd round. Dan Hix went on to win beating Mark Whynaught.

The Top Fuel final saw Bret Williamson in ‘Forever Young’ against Jim Murphy. With almost identical reaction times they rocketed side-by-side up the asphalt and Williams got there first in 5.731/256.06 mph with Murphy running fractionally slower at 5.771/256.75. It was a good race though, however, Murphy’s parachute failed to open and he ended up in the sand trap.

Unfortunately, the Funny Car final was a bit of a let down after some great racing as Geoff Moines was unable to make the line leaving Bobby Cottrell to win his third March Meet in the past four years.

The March Meet is not all about nitro though and hundreds of other equally exciting cars make up the field as the accompanying photos show. For more info about Famoso Dragstrip visit https://famosodragstrip.com