(Dennis Mothershed photo)

The first round went off as advertised at 6 p.m. in front of a good crowd. Anthony Bronge in his ’69 Camaro “The Punisher” was paired against Mickey Thompson Tires Series points leader Doc Halladay and his ’77 Arrow “Telstar.” Bronge left first and ran a career best ET of 5.925/239.10 while in the right lane Halladay shook the tires and slowed to a 6.846/174.75. Both cars are tuned by Halladay’s long-time crew chief Jerry Newman.

Texan John Hale then ran Iowa budget racer “Rapid” Randy Baker. It was Hale in a ’69 Mustang versus Baker’s ‘79 Corvette. This event marked the first time Baker had raced his new “Sin City” ‘Vette after driving Danny Miller’s Maverick for the last several years. Hale’s 6.025/238.43 easily covered Baker’s 6.589/2`18.76.

With a six-car field the DRO rules bring back the quickest first round loser to the second round so Baker’s 6.58 got him a return trip to Eliminations.

(Dennis Mothershed photo)

The final pair was supposed to be Paul Romine and Brian Stewart but for the second week in a row the rookie driver of the Tom Hoover ‘Vette had his transmission slip back into low gear from high gear resulting in irreparable engine and/or transmission failure, so Romine made a bye run at 5.811/241.41. At the time the pass was the quickest in Series history and gave Romine the ET record and an extra 30 points.