“Mad Mike” gave Anderson a second chance.

Then came the interesting races of first round. As number-two qualifier Howard Anderson and “Mad” Mike Molea were staging, Anderson was late getting into the beams and was counted out by the auto-start system seemingly giving Molea the win. However, Molea, in one of the nicest bits of sportsmanship, told his crew to tell Chief Starter Joel Eggers, “We’re gonna race for it.” Eggers had the tree reset as it is Molea’s call on whether or not to take the single.

“People come out to watch us race and that is exactly what I wanted to do with Howard, was race,” Molea explained in his pit area after the run.

Good karma was on Molea’s side as he took out Anderson with a 7.31 as Anderson shook hard and clicked it off.

Monte Grubb’s Willys pickup truck.	Mitch Chamberlin’s “Rodfather” Chevrolet.

Monte Grubb has been racing the AA Supercharged group for over three years and has never seen a win light. In the final race of first round  he was up against the stealth black ’51 Chevy of Mitch Chamberlin.  Grubb moved first with a .122 reaction time while later Sunday morning Chamberlin left the starting line with a .480 light. Grubb’s Willys pickup was screaming for the finish line with the black sedan in hot pursuit. Grubb ran his best run of the event at 7.39 to take care of Chamberlin’s 7.06/201 charge. There were tears of joy in the Grubb camp as they got ready for second round.

The second round Owen again flexed his muscles as he went even quicker at 6.86 to take care of Scott White’s tire-shaking 9.67.

Molea and Grubb faced off in a peddle fest to rival any fuel car race, however midnight struck for Cinderella, as Molea was able to coax his bright orange mount to the strip first 9.69 at 137 miles per hour, to cover up Grubb’s 12.30.  Grubb was positive about his experience. “We have something to build on. This is a entirely new combination to us and we can’t be happier.”

In the final round, Molea knew he needed some help on the starting line to overcome the performance shown by Owen. Molea pushed the tree but to no avail as he went -.152 red and handed the win to Owen.

Owen was elated by this first win. “I saw red and didn’t know what lane it was in and I saw him out on me, so I was figuring that it had to be him, then I noticed the win light on the rail in my lane.”

Owen had the car on a rail all weekend long; consistent every round no matter which lane it was in. “We have found a sweet spot in the tune up and the car just response to everything we do to it. Plus we had some luck as well,” stated Owen in the Firebird Winner’s Circle.