Next up was Mary Reep making her competition debut in the “Grim Reeper” Austin-based ride.  In doing so, she became the second female to compete in the OFAA series.  She lined up with Nick Poloson, who battled for the championship all season last season in Tom Wood’s “Sundown” altered.  Both teams had good results in pre-season testing and both clicked off nice 4.27 elapsed times in first session.  A quick shower blew through the grounds at North Star Dragway following that pair which put almost an hour delay on the action, but Mother Nature decided to cooperate and let the nitro burn as racing resumed.

A massive rainbow stretched over the staging lanes as Terry Anglin clicked off a 4.31 at 167 mph in a nice opening lap with Elk City, Kan., runner Anthony Whitfield along side at 4.56 at 121 mph in “Mighty Mouse”.  Donnie Massey, who had the hottest car at the end of last season, went 4.20 at 151 mph and debuted a brand new Tom Hoover inspired paint job on the “Showtime” fueler.  David Purifoy laid down a 4.37 at 160 mph in the opposing lane in Herb Whisnant’s “Thrill Factor” out of Texarkana, Texas.  Bobby Marriott’s team “Shockwave” rolled out along side the Iowa based “Nitro Madness” machine owned and tuned by Scott Gaulter and driven by Sean Belt.  Marriott blasted to a solid 4.11 at 177 mph while Belt smoked the tires at the hit.  Donny McSwain blasted down the strip to a strong 4.08 at only 158 mph to grab the top spot early, but with power comes a price and engine damage sidelined three heavy hitters in McSwain, Heslink and Howell after their first run.  To put icing on the fuel altered carnage cake, the “Grim Reeper” team discovered an issue in the transmission which couldn’t be repaired in time to compete so they were also forced to watch from the stands, which now looked like an OFAA drivers meeting with all the pilots playing spectator.

There was still plenty of action happening on the strip, Bobby Marriott clicked off threes in pre-season testing and threw down a 4.04 at 175 mph along side Poloson’s nice 4.17 at 163 mph to kick off the second session of qualifying.  Jack Hodgson blew the tires off at the hit for the second time and pedaled his way to a 5.68 at 143 mph to qualify 14th which actually got him in as an alternate.  Hodgson and company out of Waco, Texas also ran in the three second zone in testing and always bring a lot of horsepower to the table and although struggling through qualifying, they earned a spot in eliminations.  Massey improved to a 4.14 at 165 mph to qualify fourth and Purifoy also stepped up to a 4.30 at 163 mph which qualified him seventh.  Whitfield had a nice lap going, but the car shook hard in second gear and broke the throttle cable.  DoDad Burton wheeled the “Free Spirit” to a nice 4.22 at 168 mph to earn him the fifth position, his best OFAA start to date.  Sean Belt also struggled to find traction at the line and pedaled his way to a 5.37 at 164 mph to get in the show and laid down the best burnouts of the night! Marriott’s 4.04 held up for the number one spot to lead the field into eliminations.