Pro Mod winner Ed Hoover surveys the damage to his Pro Mod  from his “Wall Slapper” on Friday at Atlanta. (Ian Tocher Photo)

The race, held within the 31st annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway, featured 23 entries trying to qualify for a 16 car field, with Hoover going 6.03 at 238.89 mph to qualify eighth in the 16-car field for race day. As mentioned, Hoover found the right guardwall just before reaching the finish line in his second attempt on Friday afternoon.

“It got out of the groove and just got drawn to the right side like it was in a powerslide,” Hoover explained. “It hit pretty hard and I was able to give it a little counter-steer, but I had to make sure I didn’t oversteer it and send it back across the track, because that’s what it wanted to do.

“And the weirdest thing is it didn’t even touch the headers, which stick out a good 10 or 12 inches from the car and just caught maybe half an inch of the door, but it flattened the whole rear quarter panel. I was expecting the wheelie bar to have got it, too, but it wasn’t even touched either.”

For the second time this year Balooshi was the top qualifier with a 5.88-seconds pass at 243.37 mph in his nitrous-fed ’68 Camaro, with Mike Janis and his blown 2010 Mustang second at 5.89 and 242.19, and Castellana third in another ’68 Camaro at 5.91 and 241.11 mph. Chuck Cheeseman rounded out the field in the 16th spot with a 6.15 at 228.92 in his supercharged ’63 Corvette.

Among the non qualifiers were Danny Rowe, who entered the race as the second-place man in points, Canadian Ike Maier, who was pulling double driving duty in his blown ’63 Vette as well as the Paton family’s Top Fuel dragster, and Brad Personett, who has struggled all year with his twin-turboed ’68 Camaro. Defending series champion Von Smith was nowhere to be seen on the Atlanta Dragway grounds and reportedly has abandoned the NHRA ciricuit to race the 1/8th mile only ADRL series.