The first round of eliminations began promptly at 5 p.m. Saturday with Halladay’s “Telstar” Arrow against Rapid Randy Baker’s brand new Corvette. It should be noted that Jerry Newman tunes both of these cars. Halladay left on Baker and after Baker’s Hemi started dropping cylinders early in the pass it was an easy trip for Halladay who ran just 6.257/223.91.

Anthony Bronge had the quickest reaction time of 0.44. (Don Eckert photo)

The next pair rolling to the water box were Romine’s Mustang and Anthony Bronge in “The Punisher” Camaro. Bronge left first and stayed right beside Romine going down the track. Romine began to pull away from the Chicago-based racer at around mid track, which forced Bronge to activate the high-speed fuel bypass.

“It started hauling ass, then it burned some pistons and that was that,” Bronge later told his tuner Jerry Newman.