NIGHTFIRE NATIONALS

Frank“ The Heat” McBee and the gang, thrashed to make the semifinal call. Suiting up in the lanes, Hangey tried, but could not duplicate his big Bowling Green victory as the champ, Tyler Hilton, plastered a 5.74 on him for the win. The Kaiser vs. Hilton showdown in the final, the clash of the Top Fuel titans, never materialized, as Kaiser broke after the hit, coasting and watching Hilton’ s 5.78 at 256 for the win. Hilton won his fourth straight Nightfire Nationals Top Fuel title.

In late October 2025, Brandon Seraphine completed his NHRA Heritage Nitro license in his“ Spare Change” Bantam Fuel Altered. In 2026, Seraphine came to Nightfire undefeated in competition, having won the March Meet and the Fuel Altered Chaos events. Could the kid do it again? Well, in a word, yes. In two words, hell yes. Seraphine set the stage for victory at Nightfire, qualifying No. 1 with a 5.98( corrected to a 6.01 on a 6.00 index), taking out the legendary Rodney Flournoy in round one, thus earning a bye into the finals. The other baddest Altered in all the land, Vince Karstetter and the“ Cherry Picker,” qualified No. 2 with a corrected 6.032 at a top speed of the event for all nitro, 264 mph. Karstetter dispatched the always-ready James Day in round one, then delivered a stellar 6.006 at 247 mph to take out 2025’ s AA / FA 6.0 champion, Mathew Leonard in the Nitro Rat’ s game 6.11. In the final, Karstetter ripped a 6.05 pass to Seraphine’ s 6.16... but the tree told the story. The“ Cherry Picker” had red lit, and Seraphine took the win, his third straight

in an undefeated 2026 season to date.

The Pro Mod story at Nightfire was once again written by Bret Williamson, making his third straight final round in the class. Williamson qualified No. 1 and buried all comers en route to a victory over Rich Fiechter in the final. The Williamson silver bullet was dominant all weekend, running low ET in virtually every testing session, every qualifying session, and every elimination round. Noteworthy too was the return of Dennis Radford in his Bob Lambeck tribute entry, qualifying No. 3 at 3.92 and going rounds on Sunday.

The New family, owners and operators of the famed Firebird facility, proved once again that nitro at night is king, as the grandstands and pits were stuffed to see header flames under the lights live as they were meant to be … until next year. DI

Bret Williamson Brandon Seraphine

Shane Westerfield

Tyler Hilton

38 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 202