Driving an overpowered, short wheelbase hot rod isn’t that easy. Omy Barbosa made a tremendous drive to keep his 72 Datsun from going over during one of his qualifying attempts.

One hundred and eighteen teams from all over North America and the Caribbean ran the guts out of their cars attempted to qualify for the elite quick-16 field resulting in a few scary passes and blown-up engine and drivetrain parts.  Puerto Rican racer Miguel Marrero driving a turbocharged two-rotor powerplant was on the bump spot with a 7.387. Marrero qualified two cars and withdrew one of them so Denny Perez who qualified 17th moved into the field. If the race had qualified  32 cars instead of 16 the bump would have been a stout 7.856!

Kisskimmee Florida racer Boris Rojas put his ‘81 Starlet in the show in the 13th spot with a 7.332/173.01 lap and wowed the crowd with his long smokey burnouts. He went to the quarter-finals