With temperatures soaring into the triple digits in the Southern California region this weekend, the NMCA’s inaugural visit to the fabled Auto Club Raceway at Pomona for the Lucas Oil NMCA West Coast Shootout was a heated affair for all involved. Unfortunately for west coast True 10.5 hitter Terry Barkley, the mercury shot a few ticks higher on Saturday when his Chevrolet Nova took a hard shot into the right lane retaining wall and burst into a wall of flame and dark black smoke immediately upon impact.

Barkley, one of ten True 10.5 racers on the property for the second of four NMCA West events, discovered the blazing hot Pomona racing surface was a bit too tough to tame on Saturday afternoon, as he got out of the groove just before reaching the half track markers and lost control of the machine as it careened into the opposing concrete barrier. The nose-mounted fuel cell erupted into a fire that certainly got the attention of everyone on the property; none moreso than Barkley himself, however.

Fortunately, the Los Angeles, Calif. native climbed from the roasted Nova unharmed and ready to fight another day. Following this incident and an earlier crash, NMCA and Auto Club Raceway officials made the tough call to move all qualifying and eliminations from that point forth to a shortened 1/8-mile racing distance to ensure the safety of the racers.