Fifty-five years after Twig Zeigler won the first nitro title at the inaugural Nightfire Nationals, a pack of nitro beasts descended on the grounds of Firebird Raceway to do battle in three nitro classes, each looking to take home that coveted Diamond Wally trophy. While the temps were pushing high 90s all weekend, the overflow crowd packed the stands for Friday and Saturday night nitro action under the lights. The heavy hitters from the NHRA Heritage Series were on site in full force, with a whopping 27 nitro entries split between Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Fuel Altered, plus a dozen of the West’s best Pro Mods.
In Funny Car action, Shane Westerfield led qualifying with a 5.60 shot in the Bardahl Camaro, while the hot-of-late Jerry Espeseth Atlas entry landed No. 2 with a great 5.65. Current points leader Nathan Sitko’s Bubble-Up Pacemaker Firebird and Norwalk Blue Suede Cruise winner Eily Stafford in the “California Hustler” rounded out the top four with a 5.69 and 5.73, respectively.
Come elimination time, Westerfield lived up to his reputation as a premier nitro pilot, running 5.59 on a single in round one, then masterfully pedaling his way to victory with 6.74 and 6.97 passes over Todd Plate and Jon Capps to make the final. Sitko, sporting the retro livery of the famed “240 Gordie” Bonin Pacemaker (Bonin won this race in 1980) downed Tony Jurado in the semis after a 5.78 bye run in round 2, to set the stage for the final. While the matchup was the same as last year’s Funny Car final, the results this time were different as Westerfield’s on-point 5.77 took down the solid-but-second 6.01 by Sitko. Last year’s NHRA Heritage Funny Car Champ, Shane Westerfield, has won his first 2026 NHRA Heritage series event…in August.
In Top Fuel action, the two heavyweight contenders, Tyler Hilton and Pete Kaiser, resumed their 2026 points chase battle. While Hilton stumbled at Bowling Green, the champ got off the deck at Norwalk with a big win and came to Boise with the ship righted. As expected, Hilton and Kaiser dominated qualifying with Hilton and the “Great Expectations III” team blasting a fantastic 5.68 to take the top spot, followed by KFR’s 5.77 clip. Bowling Green upstarts, the Revolution Top Fuel Team out of Quakertown, Pennsylvania, towed to Firebird to prove they are no one-trick pony. And prove it they did as Gerald Hangey hung an all-time best 5.84 at a jaw-dropping 262 mph on the board for the No. 3 spot. Bobby Cottrell, the man who has won the Nightfire Funny Car title four times, ran a Top Fuel personal best 250 mph pass in qualifying fourth with a 5.94. The field was rounded out by Austin “Double A” Arnerich’s 6.19.
In round one, Hangey took out Cottrell’s up-in-smoke pass with a booming 5.80 at 263.36, setting top speed of the meet, his best ET and mph to date. Kaiser downed a valiant effort by Arnerich, with a solid 5.88 over AA’s best of show, a 6.00 at 231. Hangey’s victory did not come without a cost as the Revolution team, with crew chief 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.
This story was originally published on August 14, 2026. 
The post Hilton, Westerfield and Seraphine Take Nitro Titles at Firebird Raceway’s 55th Bi-Mart Nightfire Nationals; Williamson Dominates Pro Mod first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
