Bill Tumlinson and Richard Brady crept into the beams next but Brady jumped the tree, going red by -.032. Tumlinson clicked off an 8.04 at 158 mph to advance to the second round while Brady had to swallow the loss with a quicker but losing 7.86.

Scott Parks and Mike Millsap, the number one and three qualifiers, laid down side-by-side burnouts in a big first round match-up. Millsap cut the best reaction time of the round (.012) for a big starting line advantage. By half-track Parks had closed the gap and at the stripe Parks’s 7.32 at 184 mph was enough to drive around Millsap’s 7.68 at 169 mph.

Mike Buchanan

Mike Buchanan and Brian Briggs closed the first round of eliminations as Briggs hoped to repeat his runner-up effort from last season. It was not to be, as Briggs went -.007 red and his quicker 7.93 lost to Buchanan’s 8.20 at 163 mph. Buchanan claimed his third first round win in his four starts this season as the rest of the round winners returned to the pits to fine tune their combinations for the second round.

Kicking off the second round was Dunkin, who drew the bye run and would cruise to the semi-finals, still un-opposed in competition. Teammate Ron Muncy was out next along side Mike Buchanan. Muncy was first off the line by a tenth and a half on his way to a 7.79 at 167 mph winning pass over Buchanan’s 8.15.

Bill Tumlinson advanced to the semifinals on a solo 8.07 at 158 mph after Thomas Hixson ran into issues on the line and could not fire. Tumlinson was moving on to his first semi-final round of the season.