Pro Street Eliminations

The 32 cars that qualified for the Pro Street field made up the quickest field of its kind with Jeremy Hanger’s Keith Black-powered, supercharged ’53 Studebaker turning in a respectable 6.428 ET at 220.04 mph to get the last qualifying spot in the field. 

We pick up the Pro Street eliminations in the third round. Rod Burbage’s Corvette, last year’s SCSN winner, was paired against number two qualifier Marc Meadors and his “Pure Hell II” supercharged Hemi-powered Camaro.  Meadors left first but was too quick and bulbed with a -.007 RT. wasting a fine 5.960/244.47 in the process and Burbage coasted to a 9.955 win.

The GTO of Jose Gonzalez continued its bracket-like performance with a slight holeshot victory over “Triple B” Brad Brand. At the finish line both cars traveled the LVMS quarter mile at 5.942 seconds, but a .015 starting line advantage gave Gonzalez the win light.

Clint “Milkman” Hairston driving the family’s turbocharged GTO which until very recently was being driven by Troy Coughlin finished ahead of the former four-door AA/GS now a Street Car ’65 Valiant driven by West Coast favorite Sean Renteria. It was a very close race. Hairston’s turbo-charged EFI small block ran a 6.035 to Renteria’s 6.054 for the win.

Sean Renteria cranked out Low Elapsed Time of the event in his second round win over nitrous pioneer Shannon Jenkins.  With some confusion, Renteria’s supercharged Valiant may have rolled the starting line lights, but grabbed Low ET honors with his 5.721 ET at 242.63 trailering Jenkins who ran a 6.057 ET at 236.55 mph.

The semifinal rounds of Pro Street matched  a pair of turbo cars vs. a pair of supercharged matches. One pairing saw track record holder Mike Maggio’s supercharged Camaro go against Hairston’s small but powerful turbocharged 397-cubic inch Chevy powered GTO. Maggio and Hairston left together but the GTO shook the tires, drifted out of the groove and Hairston had to abort the run giving another win to Maggio, who recorded a respectable 6.044 ET at 233.20 mph.

Maggio’s team had a major thrash after almost every round to get ready for the next round. During eliminations they twice pulled the engine out of the chassis, had the clutch in and out twice, and once had to put replace a main bearing seal between rounds. 

On the other side of the ladder, Florida based Jose Gonzalez met the ’58 Corvette of Californian Rod Burbage. Burbage left first with a killer .010 RT, but his car also wiggled the tires out of the groove and shook while Gonzalez went straight down the track ripping off a fine 5.94/249.07mph lap for the win.