Citrus Nationals 2004

Moroso Motorsports Park

Citrus Nationals

Nov. 27 – 28, 2004

Photos and Captions by Annie Lindstrom

It started out a beautiful day, but the rain started pouring down just as the jets were getting ready to head to the line for their second pass. They were asked to make three runs on Sunday instead of two.

Elaine Larsen in her Miss Ta Fire dragster made her debut at Moroso. She was pitted against Brazil Nut Lou Pereira driving his dragster with its Chariot of Fire body on this weekend. Lou just tore up the track with runs in the high 290s all weekend long. Elaine who just licensed this summer ran in the 260-270 mph range with lightening fast RTs. She says she plans to turn up the speed next year.

Elaine’s pit looked a lot like a Top Fuel operation. In addition to the awesome paint job on her trailer and her car, Elaine and her crew, headed by her husband Chris and son Andrew, stirred up lots of excitement at the track. They hired a film crew to make a short promotional video on her new career and car. One of the film crew guys, Keith Taylor, got a lesson on where not to be standing with your camera when Bob Motz did his fire show on Saturday night. The good news is that he’s alive!

Elaine Larsen (L) and Fran Peppler (R) posed for a shot before ran fell on Saturday night. Larsen is the most recent woman to receive an exhibition jet dragster license.

Fran Peppler in Rock N’ Roll Thunder takes on homeboy SuperMario Carranca on Sunday. Mario tried to beat her, but Fran took him at both lines every time.

Lou Pereira took a solo run to end the day. Lou ran 298 mph and posted a smokin’ 5:36!

Bob Motz fires up the crowd as only Bob Motz can do it. The people on the fence will be running for cover in another second or two. Bob, his son Scott and grandson Billy called it a season after this outing

Ft. Lauderdale firemen cool off the tower after Motz toasted it on his last run on Sunday.