"This is like a dream come true," said Tutterow. "When I won the $5,000, I thought that would be enough. But to come here and race in front of 50,000 fans and then take home a Minuteman – it's still hard to believe."

Tutterow had run over 200 mph in testing at the end of last season, so entering the weekend's competition, he was confident it could duplicate the feat during a national event.

"I worked on making the car consistent," said Tutterow. "We struggled like everyone else at the low-end of the track this weekend, so I worked on making it up on the top end. The speed is there, the ET will come around."

It was, as Von Smith aptly described, “the worst debut of my life.” A faulty fuel pump was the catalyst in the Al-Anabi Racing team’s disgruntling weekend in its new 1968 Chevy Camaro (shown).

“The first time we fired up the engine, the fuel pump disintegrated into the fuel system,” said Smith. “We thought we had everything fixed, but metal pieces kept plugging up a fuel nozzle. Every time we opened a nozzle we found more pieces of metal. We made six runs and never made a full (eighth-mile) pass. It wouldn’t run past the top of high gear.”

Despite the unexpected mechanical failure, Smith and crew chief Howard Moon were pleased with the potential displayed by the Al-Anabi Camaro. “It’s a beautiful car,” said Smith. “I love the way it drives. It’s going to fly.

“Howard will get things cleaned out figured out before our next ADRL race (April 10-11 at South Georgia Motorsports Park in Cecil, Ga.),” Smith added. “Stuff like that doesn’t happen often.”

Meanwhile, the team will be busy preparing for races in Bahrain (March 19-20) and Qatar (March 26-27).