The semifinal round of funny car found Macklyn narrowly defeating Lesenko, 6.084 over Lesenko’s 6.101. Rajcic broke a throttle cable handing another round win to Boychuk who ran another stout 5.874 ET at 240.38 mph.

It was an all Firebird final for Tim Boychuk and his Hodgson/Boychuk Racing crew versus Steve Macklyn driving the Utah-based “Nitro Thunder” funny car.  A fuel pump issue gave Boychuk problems, but a sharp-eyed crewmember kept fuel going into the injector keeping the Hemi alive.

Tim Boychuk  (Darr Hawthorne photo)

After a short Boychuk burnout, the two Pontiacs staged. At the start, Macklyn left the line ahead of Boychuk but a 5.998 from the Rodeck-powered Pontiac was no match for Boychuk’s 5.886/236.25 charge, making for the team’s first win of the year. 

After the final round, crew chief Roland Leong said, “This was the first time I ever raced at the new Las Vegas strip. I’ve always gotten fired right before we were ready to come here to race!”

Nate Bugg in the BDS car and Troy Green at the wheel of the “Bomb Squad” entry.  (Tim Marshall photo)

Steven Densham drove his father Gary’s “Teacher’s Pet” seen here in a qualifying session with Leah LeDuc in the “Plueger & Gyger” car.  (Tim Marshall photo)