Round 1

Richard Willet

The opening round saw Willet get a bye run as Clark Cooper couldn’t make the call. Cooper had issues with his brakes and had to retire from the show. Willet eased it through with an 8.06 at 62.63 mph. 

The next pair saw Chick Poindexter get a large holeshot advantage of .268 seconds on Chris Smith. Smith carded a fine .980 60-foot time and pedaled the Vette to a come-from-behind 4.17/159.12 win as Poindexter posted a 4.61 at 144.09. The third run on the converter for Smith showed the potential the new combination has.

Travis Barber

Benham pulled to the line against Travis Barber for the next run. Both drivers were on and off the throttle dealing with traction. Benham got the ‘59 classic to grab and pulled away for a 4.42/136.53 to 4.97/121.59 win.

Parts breakage claimed another competitor and this time the number one qualifier, L. Brown and the Twin Performance team, were the victims suffering a bearing issue in the rear end of the black Pontiac. Brown’s misfortune gave Rob Urdiales the bye run into the semifinals and he idled the Camaro down with an 11.80 at 54.09 mph to advance.