West Coast hitter Kris Krabill and tuner Cory Lee  (who had never seen the Cordova track before) ran a 6.167/234.70 and Steve Nichols from Delaware, with California’s nitro Chevy-engine wizard Ray Zeller tuning, turned in a 6.332/225.79. Paul Romine’s early shutoff 6.407/179.92 was good for the number four position.

Paul Romine stayed in the throttle on his first lap as long as he could. “We had the tune-up in the motor we had in it when we ran a 5.960 at Indy. The (Cordova) track just wasn’t ready for that.”  (Jeff Burk photo)

Race promoter Scott Gardner had guaranteed that the quick four Funny Cars from the Friday qualifying session would get a starting position. Everyone else in the Friday session had issues getting down the track and the bump for the eight-car field was held by Illinois racer John Dunn with a shut-off 11.67.