Summit Motorsports Park 30th Annual Night Under Fire Wrap Up
Norwalk, Ohio (August 5, 2007)—Tony Pedregon and Jesse Harris were the professional class winners at the 30th Annual ACDelco/The Ohio Lottery Night Under Fire presented by Amalie Oil at Summit Motorsports Park held August 4. The event started with sportsman racing at 9:00 am, with professional classes in Funny Car and Jet Dragster running in front of a capacity crowd in the evening. A 20-minute fireworks display entertained the spectators at the end of professional eliminations.
Pedregon, Torrance , Calif. , the defending champion from last year’s Night Under Fire held his title by defeating Columbus native Jim Head in the final round. Both cars came off the starting line with a strong launch but Head had to shut his engine down mid-track, leaving Pedregon to take the win with a 4.828 second pass at 301.20 mph.
Dan Wilkerson, making his professional Funny Car debut at the event, had the fastest Funny Car pass of the day with a 308.71 mph run during qualifying sessions.
One of the highlights of Funny Car qualifying was the pairing of racing legend and 14-time NHRA World Champion John Force with his daughter and NHRA rookie Ashley Force. In that race she drifted left toward the lane her father was in and did an expert job pedaling the car and keeping it under control, and ended up with a 4.914 second pass ahead of her father’s 5.015 second run.
In Jet Dragster, Jesse Harris from Rome , N.Y. won in a repeat of last year’s Night Under Fire final round match up. Harris faced off against Lou Periera but the “Queen of Diamonds” bested Periera with a 5.249 second 301.00 mph run, over Periera’s 5.403/297.09. Harris also beat Periera in a match in April at the park’s Season Opener, and remains undefeated at Summit Motorsports Park .
In opening ceremonies before the evening’s professional racing, Bill Bader, Jr., president of Summit Motorsports Park , unveiled a custom-painted Funny Car body for John Force’s car and dedicated it to the fans. “The Night Under Fire is dedicated to the fans here tonight,” said Bader. “You are not just our customer. Over the past 30 years you have become part of our family, and we salute you with this car.” The car was retired at the end of the evening.
The paint scheme features hand-airbrushed orange flames, and matches a limited-edition die cast car that went on sale earlier in the year and has since sold out. Upon seeing the car he would be driving that evening, Force joked, “She has a lot of flames on it, I sure hope she doesn’t catch on fire when we go down the track tonight!” Force then welcomed fans to the Night Under Fire, saying “This is the greatest drag race show on Earth!”
One of the evening’s most touching moments was when Bader talked about jet car driver Bob Motz, a long-time veteran of racing at Summit Motorsports Park . Motz has been hospitalized since June 24 following a racing accident in West Virginia . One of the traditions of the Night Under Fire in past years was Motz burning down the back wall sign with his jet-powered truck, and Bader let the crowd vote whether to burn down the sign this year as usual or present the Motz family with the money it would take to replace the sign. Overwhelmingly the crowd voiced their approval to giving the money to the Motz family, and Bader had them on hand to present a check for $12,000.
Following the final rounds of professional qualifying, a 20-minute fireworks display lit up the night skies, coordinated with a montage of rock music played over the park’s sound system.
Sportsman racing resumed around midnight and continued through early Sunday morning. Rain forced a delay and sportsman racing is expected to continue Monday morning.
