Words by Chris Graves
Photos by MaxCacklePhotos.com

The Painless Performance Outlaw Fuel Altered Association thundered into North Star Dragway in Denton, Texas on Saturday, May 7th and brought with them a record number of blown fuel altereds!  Twenty teams came to mix it up and fight for those precious Painless points and for a spot in the twelve car field.  Bobby Marriott and team “Shockwave” led the points after their season opening win two weeks before at Texas Raceway, and it was time for round two as the fans packed the stands and lined the fence while fuel altereds flooded the staging lanes.  Two teams have enjoyed much success at the first event of each season at North Star Dragway.  Bobby Marriott and Donnie Massey have squared off in the final round of the spring Denton events for the past two straight seasons and hoped to continue that streak under the lights in north Texas. 

As usual, a crowd of Texas nitro legends filled the pits to see the fuel altereds in action, including Vance Hunt, Dale Emery, David Pace, Ronnie Young, Ron Ussery and current Top Fuel pilots Spencer Massey and Scott Palmer. 

The OFAA welcomed the return of several competitors to the fold including the “Nitro Madness” team of Scott Gaulter of Des Moines, Iowa with the always entertaining and talented shoe Sean Belt behind the wheel. 

The first round of qualifying seemed more like a sixteen car first round of eliminations: all twenty cars were in the four second zone and the bump was already a 4.21 heading into the final qualifying session, and that’s with qualifying twelve cars instead of ten as in previous seasons. 

The call went out to bring the twelve nastiest fuel altereds on the property to the starting line for first round!  With no oil downs, no parts breakage and no need for an alternate to fill any positions, the top twelve answered the call and filled the lanes for what everyone anticipated to be an all out exhibition of horsepower in the opening round where the two quickest winners would advance to the last dance.