Ewing, New Jersey, racer Raul Acevedo gave the Saturday crowd a thrill show when he got his twin-rotor Mazda-powered 1972 Datsun crossed up during the second round of eliminations. He was able to get the car under control but not until he had it up on two wheels. He lost the round but made the photographers very happy.

Seventy-six teams from six Caribbean and South American countries as well as the U.S. made qualifying runs at this inaugural event. Earlier in the year Weisinger made the controversial decision to move his World Street Nationals from the traditional weekend for that race and replace it with an event just for Sport Compact racers and street bikes. (The World Street Nationals will be run Nov. 18-19.) It turned out to be a good decision for all concerned.

Raul Acevedo’s turbo-charged rotory-powered ‘72 Datsun belches some flame as the brings the RPMs up for the 10,000+ RPM launch! These cars are LOUD! Acevedo qualified 8th with a 7.374/194.55

The Sport Compact race format qualified the quickest 16 cars to race heads-up for the Challenge title and $10,000 in cash. The remainder of the cars that could run 10.99 or quicker in the quarter mile were automatically entered into a $5,000-to-win bracket race.