“The brakes were not responding,” Brown stated and as a result the team was done for the night and would not return.

When the black Willys of Hickl pulled to the line there was a sense of something special. At the green the black monster was gone and Hickl deftly peddled it once and still leaped to the top of the qualifying list with a stellar  4.03/186.49. With two qualifying sessions complete the final qualifying order lined out as follows.

Trent Wilson

1. E.J. Hickl              4.03/186.49
2. LeWayne Brown           4.10/178.43
3. Bob Gulitti             4.17/171.30
4. Eric Stubbs             4.19/191.08
5. Trent Wilson            4.30/171.95
6. Luis Hidalgo            4.30/171.95
7. Shane Thompson          4.36/172.02
8. Brent Jones             4.39/163.64
9. Doug Morales            4.43/166.98
10. Steve Benoit      4.45/164.41
11. Eddie Roach       4.45/143.77
12. Dennis Hendrix    4.53/163.40
13. Paul Brandt       4.56/123.63
14. Bengt Blomberg    4.99/101.21
15. Kevin Hubbard     5.04/176.26
16. Chris Domino      6.58/66.74
17. Clark Cooper      7.55/65.10

Round 1

With the temperatures falling and adjusted altitudes reading just 600 feet above sea level, horsepower was easy to make for the first round of eliminations. First pair up in round one had Eric Stubbs’ turbo Vette make a motor wounding 4.70/175.92 to beat Dennis Hendrix’s 4.78/151.87. Second pair out saw Kevin Hubbard struggle to a 10.63/47.19 while Shane Thompson continued a great night by again running a career best time of 4.28 @171.69 to pick up the win.

Top qualifier Hickl was up next against Doug Morales. Both had traction problems with Morales taking out the 330 cone while Hickl kept his machine between the lines but using up all of his lane recording a great 4.22/171.95 to advance. Local favorite Gulitti was next up against Eddie Roach with the race all Gulitti as his green machine laid down a consistent 4.16/171.36 to win over Roach’s 9.28/48.74.