It was an early call for eliminations on Memorial Day, an 8:30 a.m. call to the lanes with Hot Rod class laying down some rubber before the nitro cars. 

Chris Bennett in the “Pure Heaven IV” Camaro was named the victor in the first pair after Ed Dougan in the “Fighting Irish” Camaro oiled the track for the fifth time of the weekend and was disqualified. Bennett moved into the second round.  (James Drew photos)

Unfortunately, the second pair had even more oiling issues when Mark Hentges in the O’Brien & Austin “Northwest Hitter” split an onboard oil tank in the race against Brad Thompson. The resulting oil-down took nearly an hour and a half to clean up. (Hentges photo by Tim Marshall/Thompson photo by Darr Hawthorne)

After the track was clean, an improving Todd Lesenko in Plueger’s “Jolly Rogers” Mustang took a holeshot victory over #2 qualifier Jason Rupert. Lesenko’s 5.896 ET at 235.35 mph beat Rupert’s 5.878 ET at 252.61 mph charge for the closest race of the first round.  (Tim Marshall photos)