The final pairing should have been Terry Capp in his Roland Leong-tuned “Bubble Up” car versus Kris Krabill, but the “Bubble Up” Trans Am could not make the show. Terry's main motor was damaged during qualifying and although they had bolted the spare between the rails overnight, that motor wasn’t as good as the other motor. Plus, a pulley spacer (suitable for the broken unit) did not fit the spare engine and no spares were available. Disappointingly the race was over for Capp, Hodgson, and Leong.
That left Krabill to pedal his way to a semi match up with Bucky by running a single at 5.918 at 240.25 mph, but he damaged the cars rear end in the process requiring a thrash to ready the car in time to meet Austin the “Northwest Hitter” in the next round
The semifinals began with the Austin and Krabill pairing. The “Pedaler” crew worked hard to get the rear end of their Plymouth rebuilt and ready to go. Alas, it was for naught as Kris went up in smoke, pretty much at the hit of the throttle, and Bucky was on another 5.80 mission, running straight and true to a 5.88/237.02 to reach the final round of the Canadian National Open.
The other semi featured Jennings and Grekul, a pretty good race with Grekul having the pace all the way, running his Mach 1 Mustang to a sweet 5.87/235.41 over a losing 6.02/230.06 for Jennings in the Dodge. This set up the all-Plueger final featuring the two fastest and most consistent cars over the weekend.
The final was a great heads-up race. Both Mike and Bucky left together having a 0.156 and a 0.153 RT, respectively, and ran side by side all the way. But there can only be one winner and on this day Mike had the edge, running 5.86 at 235.29 mph, just edging out Bucky Austin's 5.877 at 235.04.
NITRO HARLEYS
The other nitro race at this event was the eleven bike Top Fuel Harley race, a class of racing that is alive and well in the Northwest. On this weekend we saw six-second runs aplenty. The final saw Jody York on his Image Racing machine face off against number one qualifier, Jason Arkinstall on his “Nemesis” ride running the new Fast Lane Racing V60 engine. The power plant did its job, taking Arkinstall to the win in a very stout 6.451/211.76 to York's tire spinning 7.499/138.97.