When The Weather’s A Drag

The NHRA’s only visit to New England for the year may have been cut short by rain, but that just meant telling a different story

Photos by Ned Leone (1/2), Chris Leone (3/4)

There’s an adage that suggests “if you don’t like the weather in New England, wait five minutes.” Unfortunately, every time we tried to do that for elimination rounds at the NHRA New England Nationals, Mother Nature came up with something even less likeable.

Considering the weather that we had in the area all weekend long, it was a minor miracle that the tens of thousands of fans who showed up got more than one day of nitro runs at all. Officials adapted to the threat of rain on Friday by pushing the day’s schedule up while temperatures were in the 80s and 90s—suboptimal for the fastest times, of course, but at least getting Top Fuel and Funny Car racers on track for one round of qualifying before some of the biggest showers of the weekend hit.

That rain brought a drastic decrease in temperature with it for the rest of the weekend. While cooler temperatures can set up racers for record-setting runs, the swing into the high 40s was too substantial for some cars to post decent times on Saturday. Chad Green’s top Funny Car time, a 4.10/310.98, stood up from Friday, while Antron Brown’s 3.72/329.0 on Saturday was enough to get him from second to Leah Pruett to atop the leaderboard. For Green, it was his first-ever top qualifying time; for Brown, it was his 50th, although the previous one had come nearly six years ago in Seattle.

But that was where we left it. The catch-22: when the skies weren’t open, the track temperatures were too low to run. Saturday’s pedalfests showed just how much of a difference it makes when you cross the fine line from cool to cold. That meant that the NHRA Safety Safari was, alternately, tasked with either getting the track dried after another downpour, or trying to get the surface temperature up to at least 75 degrees. Despite all their efforts on Sunday and Monday alike, the balance of the event still had to be moved to Bristol Dragway for this weekend.

So what’s a fan to do while the racers, officials, and media are waiting it out? The good news for the tens of thousands of ticket buyers at an event like this is that the NHRA remains one of the most accessible forms of racing on the planet. Getting onto the drag strip itself for things like track walk and driver introductions (which still happened) isn’t much trouble, and with only the two nitro classes and Pro Mod attending this year for national teams, hitting every setup in the paddock wasn’t too bad, either. Plenty of drivers were out signing autographs and taking pictures with fans as always; defending Funny Car champion Ron Capps filled the time stepping behind the microphone.

And even if you’re not quite through the gates yet, race fans themselves are some of the friendliest people in the world if you know where to look.

Having been loaded up with countless promotional items all Sunday morning, and knowing that the track was still too cold for racing, I made a quick run to the car to lighten the load. A group of tailgaters offered me free wings before I got back to the track, and without a single car in staging, I was happy to oblige. This process repeated itself a second time about 45 minutes later, and at that point, knowing that the chances of actually racing were getting slimmer and slimmer, I chose to stick around and make friends.

The guys I met—Bill, Dan, Jim, and Aaron—have been a staple of the Dragway’s A lot for years now, as well as plenty of other sporting events around the northeast. Bill talked about his years of restaurant management experience at KFC, and how mortified he was to serve cold food as a result (not that the temperature made it any less delicious). He also talked about how his wife had surprised him at the track the day before, driving five hours each way just to hang out with him and the boys for three on Saturday. Dan mentioned that he had a brother from southern California, and that flying out to Pomona for the Winternationals and NHRA Finals every year was part of why he was such a nitro junkie.

Each had their story to tell, only interrupted occasionally when someone else would take Bill up on the offer of wings, venison jerky and sausage, or the best baked beans I’ve ever had. For those of you who kept walking: you missed out. Given both the amiability of my new friends and the Dragway itself—without massive VIP suites or a giant media center to speak of, it’s a throwback to the days of Don Garlits—that hour or so felt like I’d stepped out of a time machine in the best of ways.

Going back to the track on Monday is always a little hollow. Besides my new friends not being in the parking lot with food and cornhole, all of the promotional displays are either long gone, or at least halfway disassembled. Even the vintage dragsters that grace the lot just beyond track entry weren’t hanging around another day, leaving another empty space for those who figured that a trip back to Epping for the day was worth the gamble. By about 1, though, the few other media members who were there with me were starting to pack up and take off—and within the hour, their suspicions of another cancellation were confirmed over the PA.

There are few things more disappointing than a well-planned event that ends up getting cancelled due to the weather. The racers and their sponsors will get their runs in at Bristol, and the fans are well protected by the NHRA’s ticket credit policy, but it’s hard not to feel terrible for both the Dragway itself and the locals who will have to wait another year to see Top Fuel or Funny Car again.

Still, if I can offer a bit of advice to anyone who ends up in that spot somewhere else? Go hit the parking lot and make some friends. Your stomach isn’t the only thing that’ll thank you.