Both drivers got out under their own power, but a visibly shaken Macklyn climbed out of his car and went over to the left guard rail, sat down and was inconsolable. To many observers Macklyn’s actions of getting the car off the guard wall, keeping it on the track and not allowing it to get over the wall and possibly getting into the spectator area was heroic.

Rupert was also shaken by the incident. "I felt this huge thud backing up and I thought at first I had run somebody over. Then I realized the car wasn't going anyplace, so I shut it off and started to climb out of the car. I looked back and thought, What in the world is he doing there.”

The damage to Rupert’s car was contained mostly to a broken wheelie bar and a parachute mount and some minor cosmetic damage. The damage to the “Nitro Thunder” car was more substantial. The body was broken on the right side and the rear, the wheelie bars, and some of the body tree were destroyed. The crash put the “Nitro Thunder” team on the sidelines for the rest of the weekend.

After that bit of excitement, it was time to get back to the normal world of funny car racing.

The final pair to the close out the first session was Mike Savage and Tim Boychuk.

Boychuk is running the rest of this season without the assistance of long time crew chief Roland Leong. Savage was running this weekend with some help from fuel system ace Spike Gorr. At the green, Savage was first out and was never headed as he ran a 6.15/225.02 to take care of the Edmonton, Alberta-based Trans Am’s 6.70/204.22.

Next up was the Pro Fuel division, which is IHRA version of A/Fuel Dragster. Four cars made up this class.

Don St. Arnaud

The first pair up was 21-year-old Casey Grisel and Don St. Arnaud. At the green St. Arnaud was out of the gate first however, Grisel was hauling the mail and made it to the stripe first with a 5.87-second run to cover St. Arnaud’s trailing 6.07.

Next Kristen Dennis faced off against multi-event winner Johnny Ahten. Ahten was first out of the gate, but his tuneup did not produce as it labored to an 8.48 which was not going to do anything to handle Ms. Dennis’s 6.11/225. This meant that it was going to be a very youthful final.