The opening round of eliminations saw David Sangster fill the number-eight spot of Eric Stubbs as the oil leak sidelined his turbocharged 2002 Mustang. That matched Sangster up against Cowboy Woods ProCharger-powered ‘69 Camaro. Sangster got the jump at the green but his 5.02 at 140.23 wasn’t enough as Cowboy went through at 4.59 at 145.11 for the win.

E.J. Hickel showed that he came to play, laying down another fine run of 4.28 at 142.09 to take out Paul Brandt, who had his hands full running 5.56 at 84.14. Brandt had an oil line come off the trans and put fluid under the slicks and he slalomed his way, chutes out early, to that number keeping the IROC Z off the wall and intact to battle another day.

Chris Smith showed again that he was the one to beat this evening, blasting a 4.10 at 173.68 as his opponent, Richard Willett, left before the tree was activated.

SEMIFINALS

The match ups in the semi’s promised to be an exiting mix that also demonstrated the great diversity of combinations and what makes the Texas Automatic Outlaws a great show.

First up was blower vs. turbocharger. E.J. Hickel’s blown ‘41 Willys stepped up and uncorked a 4.15 at 156.47 and as he approached the line the car drifted to the center and clipped the first timing block and crossed the center line to be disqualified. That handed the win to Cowboy Woods, who unleashed the ProCharger and ripped off a 4.17 at 151.46 that was all Hickel could handle even without punching the block.

The other match had Chris Smith’s blown ‘62 Vette running Chris Domino’s nitrous-fed ‘02 Pontiac Grand AM. Domino left early at the green carding a - .002 light while running an ever improving 4.23 at 176.13 giving Smith the win light as he ran another strong 4.12 at 168.86.