Another stellar player in Comp was Bruno Massel, who drove his BB/AT (turbocharged  4-cylinder) to an unreal qualifying time of 7.189 at 190.48 mph. And let’s not forget Stock Eliminator where out of 69 entries there were no fewer than seven AA/SA entered and not one of them was a Ford or Chrysler factory car, and the Super classes where packages in the .012-015 or better were mandatory if a driver wanted to advance. 

Top Alcohol Dragster

(Joe McHugh photo)

The atmospheric conditions were excellent as was the track surface for qualifying, so it surprised no one that the injected nitro cars dominated qualifying and eliminations in the TAD class. There were 24 cars attempting to qualify for the 16-car field. Despite the fact that the NHRA again reduced the maximum nitro percentage for the A/FD this year to 94 percent, the nitro burners continue to dominate the class in both entries and performance. Eighteen of the 24 diggers entered were nitro-burning and just four supercharged cars made the field.

Still using a supercharged engine combo that qualified within a hundredth of a second of the quick nitro burners Chris Demke from Sunland, CA, drove his Dave Uyehara/Brad Anderson-engined dragster into the finals against Duane Shields of Boulder City, NV, driving a Brad Hadman car with Brad Anderson engine components. It was blown versus injected nitro and veteran versus rookie as Shields had been to a final at four previous national events and it was the first time for Demke.

Demke put a .027 bulb on Shields, who was late with a .093. Demke put the throttle to the floor and drove all over his side of the track and some of Shields’ eventually crossing the centerline and getting a DNQ giving the nitro burning Shields his first Wally with his 5.360 /265.17 clocking.

Courtney Force (Joe McHugh photo)