Unfortunately for Randy and Duane Walker their weekend was cut short when they didn’t have the parts to fix their engine after some damage it occurred in the final qualifying session. They thrashed all night and had new valves driven to the track but when the valves arrived they were not the correct ones. That was good news, however, for the Renteria Brothers as they would be placed into the Walkers’ spot as an alternate for first round.

The first round was full of surprises and upsets. The first pair out were Burbage and Renteria. Burbage was running career best numbers all weekend with multiple 5-second runs and Renteria was out for the first time with his new screw-blown combo trying to sort out the bugs. When the lights dropped both cars were off until Burbage broke and came to a stop on the track to only watch Renteria take the win as an alternate while running a career best 6.133. We would later find out the Burbage sheered off all the flywheel bolts shortly after the launch.

The next pair out was Bret Williamson and Jay Diedrich and this race was over before the tree dropped when Williamson broke a blower belt on the burnout and had to be pushed off while Diedrich took the win with a tire shaking 8.234.