John Mihovetz’s 2002 Cougar, which features a 283 cubic inch 4.6L Modular Mustang engine with twin turbos, was the car to beat from the first qualifying session on Saturday, running a 6.372 ET at 218 MPH. The pass was good for the number 1 qualifying position by more than a tenth of a second and eventually stood as low ET of the event. Mihovetz ran 6.55 in round 1 beating Karl Wilson, sent Art Hodges packing with a 6.375 to Hodges’ 6.79 in round 2, and ousted Clint Hairston with a 6.42 to a valiant but losing 6.50 by the Hairston team.
Ed Thornton’s Twin Turbo ‘57 Chevy Bel Air uses a 519 cubic inch big block, but seemed to be mired in problems from the beginning of the weekend. After spending most of Friday’s test session diagnosing a computer glitch, the team was loading the car onto the trailer 20 minutes before round 1 qualifying on Saturday after finding the chassis was broken and needed to be welded. They were able to get the upper hand on that problem and returned to the track in time to make the second and final qualifying session but that run resulted in instant tire spin. Tuner Shane Tecklenburg and clutch expert Doug Stewart were able to dig deep into their bag of tricks for their Round 1 confrontation with Jeremy Hangar and eked out a 6.72 to 6.78 win. Round 2 saw Thornton pass Mike Bowman and hold him off 6.719/203 to Bowman’s hard charging 6.795 at 214 mph. In the semifinal match with Bob Griffith, Thornton ran another sub par 6.78 as Griffith overpowered the racetrack and had to shut off.
In the final round Thornton finally met his match as Mihovetz spanked his teammate with another stellar 6.37 at 219 mph to Thornton’s tire spinning 20.70 at 51 mph.
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David Dedrickson had severe tire shake in first and second gear of his Hemi nitrous Firebird and tried to drive through the shake. He bounced off both walls, coming to rest in the middle of the track.