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Tyler Hilton, Mike Peck, and Brandon Seraphine break through at Famoso By David Beitler
After the 2026 NHRA Heritage Series kicked off on February 13-14 with the Tucson Dragway Reunion in Tucson, Arizona, featuring Group 1 and 2 classes, the excitement continued on March 5-8 at the legendary Famoso Dragstrip in Bakersfield, California, for the Good Vibrations Motorsports March Meet, where all classes competed. Favorable weather conditions drew large crowds and teams to the famous strip, set amid the fields surrounding Famoso – nicknamed“ The Patch.” NOSTALGIA TOP FUEL Ten Nostalgia Top Fuel teams battled to secure spots in the eightcar field during the two qualifying days. Tyler Hester secured the top spot with a 5.679-second pass at 224.66 mph, followed by four-time champ Tyler Hilton and his 5.724 at 237.21 and Pete Kaiser rounding out the top three with a 5.742 at 249.58.
The opening round of eliminations started with an unfortunate upset for No. 1 qualifier Tyler Hester as he broke his throttle cable on the hit and just rolled towards the finish line, while Adam Sorokin powered to a 5.918 at 243.24 mph to advance into the semifinals. No.
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2 qualifier Tyler Hilton won over Bret Williamson while No. 3 qualifier Pete Kaiser beat Bobby Cottrell. Mike Hilton also advanced with a tireshake-troubled pass after Frank McBee Jr. pulled a red light at the tree.
In semifinal action, Mike Hilton stepped up his performance, running 5.758 at 236.96 to defeat Sorokin, who slowed to a 6.405 at 151.18. On the other side of the ladder, Tyler Hilton laid down one of the quickest runs of eliminations with a 5.689 at 263.31 to defeat Kaiser’ s 5.814 at 249.23.
The final round paired Tyler Hilton against his uncle, Mike Hilton, for the Nostalgia Top Fuel title. Mike showed some nerves and left too early. His 5.929 at 197.41 would have been no
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match to Tyler, who drove his McKinney chassis dragster to a 5.714 at 265.09 to claim his first March Meet win, starting his championship title defense strong.
NOSTALGIA FUNNY CAR In Nostalgia Funny Car, Todd Plate in“ The Problem Child” bounced back from his crash at last year’ s Hot Rod Reunion in a big way with a blazing 5.485 at 253.23, running the quickest pass in Nostalgia Funny Car history, to secure the top spot in front of Jon Capps, who posted a best of 5.507 at 265.33 to the scoreboards, followed by Shane Westerfield’ s 5.515 at 267.53 in the Bardahl Camaro. On a side note, Eily Stafford made her debut in the“ California Hustler” Pontiac and qualified in a solid 11th place.
Round one in Nostalgia Funny Car also saw a big upset win as Geoff Monise put No. 1 qualifier Todd Plate on the trailer in a spectacular pedal fest. Capps defeated Tony Jurado, who encountered problems right at the hit. Westerfield also advanced over Bill Windham. In other matches, Mike Peck eliminated Derrick Moreira, Drew Austin took out Jeff Arend, Nathan Sitko beat Cory Lee, and Bobby Cottrell defeated Jerry Espeseth, while Ryan Horan advanced over Eily Stafford.
In the second round, Sitko ran 5.552 at 264.00 to defeat Capps, who posted a 5.762 at 205.99. Peck continued his strong performance
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID BEITLER |