Beyond all the hype that resulted from this pairing, there were two eager drivers ready to square off in Rick Grindstaff and L.H. Newlin, to see who would run Witko in the finals.  Grindstaff had been hiking the front end and unloading the tires instantly on every pass and yet again didn’t get a clean launch but his 5.01 at 147 mph was enough to put Newlin’s off pace 6.94 on the trailer.

Leonard Ament and Dustin Johnson wanted to put on as good of a show for the fans as possible, so they lined up in a friendly grudge match behind the semi-final.  Johnson’s 4.89 at 144 mph just beat Ament’s 4.97 at 139 mph, likely because Leonard couldn’t see past his cheek bones with the smile he had on his face, knowing the Championship belonged to him. 

Semi-Final Round Results:

(W) Rich Witko (.084 rt) 4.80 @ 144 mph vs. (L) Chris Stouffer (.112 rt) 4.63 @ 142 mph
(W) Rick Grindstaff (.208 rt) 5.01 @ 147 mph vs. (L) L.H. Newlin (.290 rt) 6.94 @ 82 mph

This was the second trip to the finals for both Grindstaff and Witko as the blown funny car lined up with the blown front engine dragster to decide the winner of the Texas State Championship.  Grindstaff and crew added over twenty pounds to the nose of the “Quarterflash” rail, but the starting line troubles continued as Grindstaff had to pedal it immediately.  Witko’s flopper went right down broadway after getting the reaction time advantage for the third straight round and Witko took his first TBFA win with a nice 4.75 at 145 mph to Grindstaff’s 5.59 at 122 mph.