A pair of 6.65’s put Mike Maggio’s blown Vette and newcomer Perry Thor’s Canadian Camaro into the show in the six and seven spots, while fellow Canadian Roy Moznik was the last car to make the top half of the 17-car field driving yet another El Camino. He recorded a 6.862/202.70.

The field was filled out with Richard Klann’s “Motown Missile” Mopar with a 7.020, Len Freemans’ turbo Buick (7.067), Plastic Man Ed Thornton’s Vette (7.127), Alaskan Steve Cook’s blown Road Runner (7.161), Greg Carlyle’s blown Vette (7.209), newcomer Joe Alworth’s “Highway 69” nitrous ‘37 Chevy coupe (7.322), Lee Frank’s awesome Vette (7.493), Shawn Myles’Idaho-based Olds Cutlass (7.893), and Bruce Dykes new Chevy-powered turbo Mustang at 8.748.
Round one featured Hairston’s potent turbo GTO and Myles’ Cutlass in a tire shaking side-by-side match with the Hairston clan picking up the victory at 7.013/217.13 mph. Moznuk hurt the powerplant in his potent all-black El Camino, so the famed “Mopar Missile” with Richard Klan at the controls made a nice easy single pass of 6.969/197.80 mph to advance to round two.

Bluebaugh’s Monte Carlo had ignition problems while staging but Carlyle forgot to stop at the weight scales, putting the brand new blown Corvette from Washington out of the show and Bluebaugh back in.

Alaska’s finest and fastest racer, Steve Cook (above), made the long tow to Las Vegas and left at least a car length on 2007 Champion John Mihovetz and his potent Accufab Cougar. It looked like the champ would be watching round two until Cook’s blown Hemi Road Runner carried the wheels over the centerline drifting into Mihovetz’s lane, narrowly missing the bright yellow Cougar, and was disqualified.

Mihovetz wisely backed out of it for a 6.839/185.10 win. Afterwards, he admitted, “I saw him coming into my lane and thought it was over.”

Last time veteran Pro Mod racer Lee Frank brought his Idaho-based Corvette to LVMS and in the first round his 6.451/215.96 lap was good for a win. Perry Thyr’s brand new Camaro got a free pass when Len Freeman lost fire in the turbo Buick of Galena and Freeman, as Thyr’s beautiful Camaro eased on down the 1320 at a 7.529, 125.95 mph pace for the win.

New guy Joe Alsworth (he just got his license in qualifying) put a gate job on veteran Tim Henry with a .016 RT to Henry’s .186, but horsepower often trumps a bad light, which was the case here. Henry’s car delivered his best effort of the weekend, a nifty 6.387 at 219.15 mph, while Alsworth had to settle for first round runner up with a (relatively) slow 7.285/188.28 lap.