Paul Romine (Mike Schramel photo)

A couple of veterans of the circuit led qualifying. Defending Champion Paul Romine set Low ET of the meet with a 5.837/244.47 qualifying lap in the second round and Mark Worden driving the Stanke family’s ’79 Arrow was second with the team’s best ET to date, a 6.012. Unfortunately for the Stankes, their brand new engine broke a rod, putting them out of competition for the rest of the event.

The number-three qualifier was Texan John Hale, who is tuned by Guy Tipton. Rumors have it that nitro veteran Gary “Skippy” Kennedy helped build the engine in Hale’s car that went 5.69 in Las Vegas earlier this year. Hale’s Mustang set Top Speed of the DRO meet with a 244.60 effort on his first qualifying lap. When all qualifying was over only seven cars were able to make the call for first round but it was a strong field.

The DRO/Mickey Thompson Tire Series uses an “old school” ladder where the number-one qualifier races the number-five qualifier instead of the one-versus-eight. It makes for better racing, but at Cordova the matchups changed after number-two qualifier Worden was out due to engine damage. 

In the first round action, number-two qualifier Hale -- who changed his body from the ’69 Mustang to a ’69 Camaro -- raced the number-five qualifier, Doc Halladay, in a classic Chevy-versus-Mopar matchup. Hale had run a 5.69 at Las Vegas, which was his last race, and set Top Speed of the DRO event in qualifying at 244.60, so Halladay and Newman probably thought they would need a stout number to beat Hale.

Halladay left first by almost a tenth with a .130 light to Hale’s .202. Despite being tardy on the light, Hale had almost caught up with Halladay at about half-track when he spun the tires hard, got out of shape and coasted to a 8.23/112 lap while Halladay made his best effort of the event with a 6.062/233.28. Unfortunately, Halladay had a chute malfunction and ran off the end of Cordova’s long shut-off. He drove the car into the pea gravel at the end of the track and suffered only light damage to the front spoiler of the car. That wouldn’t be the first damage the front spoiler on Halladay’s Arrow would suffer.

Because there were only seven cars that answered the call for first round eliminations, number-one qualifier Paul Romine in the “Man O’ War” Mustang was next up on a competition bye. He ran a sub-four-second eighth mile, but just past that mark his car also began to spin and shake the tires, so he clicked the engine off and only ran a 6.522 at 149.81.