NHRA Route 66 Nationals: Records fall in first day back at Route 66 Raceway

JOLIET – Four years away from Route 66 Raceway hardly meant unfamiliarity with the record book Friday. While some cars sputtered down the 1,000-foot track, the best in three of the four NHRA classes set track records.

It started with motorcycle rider Hector Arana Jr., whose top-end speed record in the bike class dated to 2018. He wiped out that and the elapsed-time mark with his pass midway through the qualifying session – and got to enjoy that feat for 6 minutes, 36 seconds.

Gaige Herrara came along in the last pair and, ignoring the 10 pounds of extra weight he was carrying because of recent success, zipped down the track on his Suzuki in 6.677 seconds with a top speed of 202.45 mph., surpassing Arana’s 6.759 and 201.85 readings.

“The pass wasn’t the greatest, so to run like that, I was shocked when I got to the finish line,” Herrara said. “It felt like it was bouncing around a lot. At the top end, it wasn’t really pulling. Usually the slowest runs feel like the fastest.”

Imagine what a perfect run might be like.

Pro Stock, as usual close from top to almost bottom, came next, and Bo Butner III set a track record of 6.522 seconds in his Camaro body, six-thousandths better than Drew Skillman ran eight years ago. But six drivers, led by Camrie Caruso’s 210.77 mph, all surpassed his trap speed of 208.94 mph.

“I’ve missed this place, but we didn’t miss a beat,” Butner said. “It was a great run. That’s just a little bit of a gap [on the field], and I’m proud to have that. We have not run to our potential [this year].”

Butner, a native of New Albany, Indiana, has run at Route 66 in both the national and regional wings of NHRA and is running in super comp, as well, this weekend.

“I just enjoy racing,” Butner said. “You’re concerned, because not a lot of cars have been on this track, but my super comp car went right down the track after the rain.”

Then came the nitro classes, and a mix of blistering speeds and aborted runs, mostly caused by smoking the tires at the start. Those foiled passes included one by Funny Car driver Alexis DeJoria, making her 200th NHRA start this weekend, most by a female in the sport.

Best of all in Funny Car was Robert Hight of John Force Racing, with a track record in both time (3.831 seconds) and speed (335.07 mph). And he didn’t see it coming.

“We were talking about trying to run a .87 or .88, like we did in the final at Charlotte,” Hight said. “We thought that would get us qualified for the weekend.”

Now he wonders how much faster he can go.

“Tomorrow, funny cars are going to be second [after top fuel], and you know [crew chief] Jimmy [Prock], he’s going to go for it,” Hight said. “We want [the top qualifying spot]; it’s very important to setting yourself up to race on Sunday.”

Left out in the record-setting department were the Top Fuel rail dragsters, although overnight leader Mike Salinas came close at 3.686 seconds and 333.41 mph. Steve Torrence’s 5-year-old marks of 3.677 and 333.58 still stand.

All that left the gallery of perhaps 20,000 spectators gasping for air – or more nitro. It also bodes well for Saturday’s final two qualification runs, which will set the fields of 16 in each division and send a total of 11 racers home. While it’s supposed to be a bit warmer, Friday’s experience should mean better results for most of the field, if not all.

Mason Wright of Odessa, Texas, crashed in the pro modified category after the nitro sessions, flipping over, hitting the right-side wall and sliding across the finish line on the roof of his Camaro. He was shaken up but uninjured. Wright, a rookie in pro modified, had excelled in Top Sportsman in recent years.