Saturday came with a nice, hot and sunny start to the day and qualifying for the supporting cast got under way with the main exhibition classes not set to have their first qualifying run until 6 o'clock. They were scheduled to have two hits with the second one as darkness begins to fall.

There's nothing like wettin' the tubes with some nitro and blasting down the quarter mile with flames firing out the sides. But alas, Mother Nature decided we should not get such entertainment and around 5:30, she opened her heavens and poured rain and lit up dark clouds with big lighting forks. The day was done.

Sunday dawned with sunny blue skies and hot track temps (up to 132 degrees by early afternoon). The feature cars would get a single hit around midday, but before that Boychuk would do a first full pass toward the NHRA license requirements. He pedaled to an early shut off low six-second pass -- yes, a low 6 while pedaling the car. You could hear the chatter in the pits afterwards about the potential of the car. It was going to be good.

In Nitro Funny Car qualifying, Boychuk was first up to run a single to complete his licensing and laid down a stellar 5.92. He was the first of eight strong trouble-free runs with the top half of the field all in the fives. 

And check out the Plueger and Austin team times -- both ran 5.85 with Bateman getting the edge by a couple of thousandths, and both ran 233 mph with Bucky Austin getting that edge by three tenths.  But time would be the ticket and nostalgia funny car's hottest new driver continued on his roll and Garrett Bateman sat on the pole for the afternoon's race action.