(Don Eckert photo)

So Halladay got a bye run that resulted in some momentary drama when he crossed the centerline and took out some timing cones. At first it was thought that he had disqualified himself for crossing the centerline on a bye but a call to the Division Director and later confirmation from NHRA’s Graham Light revealed that on a competition bye run (the important word being competition) with no car in the other lane, crossing the centerline is not a disqualification offense. The racer doesn’t get a time and loses lane choice but not the race.

[This rule was put in the books some 35 years ago after Ron Colson crossed the centerline on a competition bye at the U.S. Nationals while driving for Roland Leong and was DQ’d. The current rule is referred to as the Ron Colson rule for that reason.]

The next two cars out were number-one qualifier Romine and Martin. Martin had lane choice and put Romine in the left lane.

(Don Eckert photo)	(Dennis Mothershed photo)

At the flash of green Romine’s Mustang moved less than a car length before making a hard move to the left. Only some superior driving from the veteran driver kept the ‘Stang off of the guardwall and Romine watched as Martin picked up the easy win with an on-and-off-the-throttle 6.804/178.31.

Romine and crew were at a complete loss to explain the car making a left turn at the hit of the throttle. After Romine’s adventure, one of the Pro Mods went 3.97 in the eighth and Roger Lechtenburg drove his dragster to a 5.85 in the same left lane. (The other class results will be in a separate race report.)