Jim Murphy and WW2 Racing were among the elite 16 Nostalgia Top Fuel Dragsters invited to the NHRA 50th Anniversary Nationals. Here Jim makes his first burnout of the event during Thursday qualifying.

After an unexpected storm delayed Thursday's qualifying and made the new track hard to read. Many of the cars smoked the tires in the one session allotted to the N/TF cars and Murphy was one of them. As Jim leaves the starting line a wisp of smoke can already be seen under the tire.

Once the tire smoke negated any chance of a good run Jim shut the car off early with an 8.40 ET at only 114 MPH and coasted through the shutdown area.

A hot race track an too much power caused Murphy to smoke the tires again during Friday's first qualifying session. Note the sell out crowd! This was the first time thousands of NHRA fans had ever seen the Nostalgia Top Fuel cars and boy, were they impressed.

In the third and final qualifying session on Friday night, WW2 bounced back to run a solid 6.13 @ 231 MPH to qualify # 6 in this stellar field. Denver Schutz in the near lane failed to qualify.

The Nostalgia Top Fuel pits saw a steady flow of fans all three days. The WW2 OSH camp was one of the most visited as Jim Murphy is not only well known, but fan and media friendly.

The tower at Pomona makes an impressive backdrop for the cars as they are started prior to running.

Backing up after a burnout is a crucial procedure. The crew must make sure the car is put back in its "foot prints" and properly placed in "the groove" to assure maximum traction on the run.

WW2 Racing's weekend ended as it began - in tire smoke. Once again they had too much horsepower for the track and lost in Round One to the eventual runner-up, Rance McDaniel who set low ET of the meet on this