LIKE A PHOENIX
“ Mountain Man ” Mike Achenbach gets a faceful of flames as he sustains a fiery nitrous backfire in his Buck-powered “ Deep Purple ” ‘ 69 Camaro in the second and final round of Pro Nitrous qualifying at the PDRA Northern Nationals . It was another blow for the Nazareth , Pennsylvaniabased racer , who had a minor run-in with the wall during Thursday testing . Achenbach and his team worked through the challenges , though , as they raced past No . 1 qualifier Tommy Franklin in the opening round and went on to Achenbach ’ s first final round . Like a phoenix rising from the ashes , Achenbach won on a holeshot , using a 3.788 at 198.90 to beat Ed Burnley ’ s 3.765 at 199.26 .
P H O T O G R A P H B Y S H A W N K E L LY
M A P L E G R O V E R A C E W AY M O H N T O N , P E N N S Y LVA N I A • F R I D AY , A U G U S T 1 3 T H , 2 0 2 1
Drag Illustrated
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