Another St. Louis racer, Danny Miller with “Rapid” Randy Baker between the tubes, came in on the break rule to ensure that the fans would see an eight-car field.

ELIMINATIONS

“Rapid” Randy Baker in Danny Miller’s “Plastic Fantastic.”  (Don Eckert photo)

The first round of eliminations ran the gamut of what fans of the class expect from Nitro Funny Cars including a big upset. The DragRacingOnline.com AA/FC Challenge presented by Lucas Oil uses the ladder that pros ran on until NHRA changed it in the late 1970s. The number one qualifier run the number five qualifier instead of the NHRA Pro ladder were the top qualifier runs the slowest qualifier.

The first pair of cars to race was Bronge in “The Punisher” ’69 Camaro versus “Rapid” Randy Baker in Danny Miller’s ‘”Plastic Fantastic” 1970 Maverick. Bronge bombed Baker with a 6.085/237.75 effort to Baker’s troubled 14.411.

Halladay was smokin’ but not the way he wanted to.  (Don Eckert photo)

Halladay and Lennon were next and, despite copious amounts of oil smoke coming out of Halladay’s headers, he ran a 6.303/228.50 that trailered Lennon’s dead game 6.706/188.96. There were reports that an intake leak was causing Halladay’s smoking headers.