SATURDAY

The second race of the TOPMA double header turned into Double Trouble with both the heat and attrition. The temperature was 101 for the first round of qualifying and, as Jerry Lee Lewis sang, there was a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on!

Darting, weaving and shutting off was the norm until the last four cars and Brandon McKinney’s Willys crashed when he got crossed up and hit the guardrail. McKinney is OK but the Willys will need some chassis and frame work. This shut qualifying down for thirty minutes for guard rail repairs.

When qualifying resumed the temperature and sun had gone down and this allowed Steve Wiley to set #1 qualifying time of 4.0824 at 161.70 mph while Frankie Taylor shook when he made his pass. Eric Clark had Top MPH at 162.75 and Charles Letteer had best RT (.0527) for round one of Qualifying.

Round 2 of qualifying was a little better because the sun was down and the temperature was still in the high 90′s but there were no big improvements.

Jim Brinkerhoff

Gaylen Smith and Jim Brinkerhoff ran the finals from Friday night’s race at Texas Raceway, with Jim making a nice pass down the track (4.4281) and Gaylen being pushed off the track when the Cuda shut off suddenly when it staged.

Frankie Taylor had Low ET (4.17), Eric Clark Top MPH (167.54) and best RT (.0053) for round two of qualifying.

Ken Thomas’s “Hell Hoss” was pulled from the race with the lower crank pulley being sheared off in the first qualifying session. It was good to see Chuck Nuytten back from his fire the preceding night at Texas Raceway but he still had engine problems on his qualifying run and did not race.

Doug Riesterer

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