QUALIFYING

There were 39 NSS teams on the grounds attempting to qualify for the race. Qualifying for the Series is determined by how close to their chosen quarter-second dial between 9.00 and 12.00.

The Victory NSS final qualifier was run Saturday afternoon with the first round of eliminations scheduled for Saturday evening. Wally Krueger garnered the top spot with a .010 over 10.76 on his 10.75 index, not only giving him the #1 position but showing his competitors that he was a threat to take the points championship. Two 2011 race winners,

Jay Freihage and Kurt TeVault, both racing Hemi-powered Mopars, were right behind on the qualifying list with stout .012-over the dial qualifying laps.
Thirty-six cars made it through qualifying and were in the lanes for the first round of racing Saturday.  

It is worth noting that a couple of racers who did qualify and raced wouldn’t have were it not for help from their fellow racers. Series regular and Mopar racer Stanley Rideout damaged his transmission on an early qualifying attempt and fellow racer Russ Berens

Rideout puts some heat in his tires while Series Administrator and part time Funny Car pilot Chris Schneider looks on

volunteered to rebuild the transmission at the track for free and competitor Wally Krueger offered the use of the lift in his stacker. With the help of other racers, the transmission was quickly removed and Berens disassembled it, diagnosed a damaged sprag, made a repair and masterfully reassembled it in time for Rideout to qualify. At the same time Behrens discovered he had holed a slick on his own car and Krueger loaned him his spare pair of slicks so that he could race!

ELIMINATIONS

Round one racing was as close as you would expect in the last race of the season with the championship still to be decided. In a shocking turn of events, first Dennis Diepenbrock and his big red Mopar Wagon --who only had to go one round to almost guarantee winning the points championship -- red-lit in the first round, then in the very next pair the number-two drover in points, Dan Beale in his Pontiac, also went red. As a result those two racers would have to watch from the bleachers to and see if anyone could win enough rounds and gain enough points to pass them in the championship race.

In other first round action Brian Essary wasted a good .022 light when another challenger for the Victory Performance points championship, Jay Freihage, went red in his 9-second Hemi-Cuda. Stanley Rideout benefited from all of the hard work he and his racer friends put in on Friday getting his ‘63 Savoy ready to compete and he got a first round gift courtesy of another red-light when BJ Bax and his GTO left a mere .003 too soon.

Jamie Guy let everyone know that he wanted to double up at Monster Mopar with a stellar .008 light to take out yet another point leader in Kurt TeVault. David Munsterman used a great .018 RT to defeat Kurt Neighbor and his Ford T-Bolt. 

Rosie Kossuth took out the 2012 World Series of Drag Racing NSS winner, Charlie Kuenster’s 409-powered Chevy. Both competitors had great lights and great ET’s, but Rosie's .019 holeshot helped her beat Charlie's .028 in a double break-out race. Mrs. Kossuth ran a 9.99 on a 10-flat dial when Kuenster ran 11.82 on a 12-flat dial.