Gainesville Raceway opened in 1969 and held its first Gatornationals event in 1970. In the NHRA world, this track has been thought of as one of the fastest on the circuit and the event is one of the sport’s most revered, abundant with history-making performances. This respected raceway has entertained fans for decades, providing notable drag racing that will be forever etched in history.
In 1984, Joe Amato and Crew Chief Tim Richards introduced an original car design which enabled a Top Fuel Dragster to create down force to gain and keep traction. The resulting car was the first-ever 260 mph pass in history at the Gatornationals.
As Top Fuel Racers experimented with small front tires, bigger rear wings, cockpits, canopies, ground effects and more streamlined bodies; the speed of these cars continued to rise. “Big Daddy” Don Garlits broke the 270 mph mark just two years after Amato hit 260 at the 1986 Gatornationals with the enclosed cockpit Swamp Rat XXX.
In 1992, Kenny Bernstein (driver of the Budweiser King Top Fuel dragster) would reach another milestone in drag racing history by breaking the 300 mph barrier with a 301.70 mph pass. With that qualifying run, Kenny would be forever known as the ”King of Speed.”
What shall we expect to see this weekend?
Here are a few things to watch for this weekend at the Gators:
Pro Stock Motorcycle Breaking the 200 mph barrier: This is the first race on the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series for the Pro Stock Motorcycle class. With this being one of the fastest tracks on the circuit, could this be the weekend that this milestone actually falls? With temps forecast in the mid-70s and cloud cover expected, the conditions could be ripe for someone to achieve this goal.
The bikes have been very close to breaking that 200 mph mark with Hector Arana, Jr. holding the national recording at 199.88. In Wednesday’s teleconference, Andrew Hines driver of the Screaming Eagle Harley Davidson believes it is possible as well.
“I think we’ll see that sitting on a scoreboard somewhere early in this year,” Hines said. “It’s still really dependent on the weather conditions. It could be one session where you might see two, three… maybe even four motorcycles run over that 200 mph mark and it might just stack up on who goes out first in that qualifying session. It could be as exciting as that, or heck, you might see maybe the last two bikes of a certain session put it up side-by-side.”
A 3.99-second run in a Funny Car: By the end of qualifying Rounds 3 and 4 at the Carquest Auto Parts nationals, 10 out of 16 cars were qualified with a 3.99 second elapsed time or quicker. Don Schumacher Racing, John Force Racing and Kalitta Motorsports have consistently run in the 3.99 range during the first two races of the season.
With the weather and track conditions are leaning to a favorable position for crew chiefs to tune for the big number. Cruz Pedregon’s 4.022-second track record could fall within the first two qualifying sessions and could be reset several times before this weekend is over. Unlike any other year, teams have been superb in the clutch management department and it’s paying dividends on the racetrack with consistent sub-four-second passes.
TELEVISION:
Friday, March 18: FOX Sports 1 (FS1) will televise one hour of qualifying highlights at 9 p.m. (ET).
Saturday, March 19: FS1 will televise one hour of qualifying highlights at 6:30 p.m. (ET).
Sunday, March 20: FS1 will televise three hours of live finals coverage at 1 p.m. (ET).