Despite some obvious disappointment in his runner-up status in both class runoffs and eliminations, Duell was pleased with his performance in the larger context, building what appears to be an insurmountable lead in the season points standings with two events to come.

Dallas Schultz won his class, the Opel Engineering FX Shootout, and advanced to the quarterfinals in eliminator before going red in an index-up contest against Duell.

“If I’m figuring this right, I have a 13-round lead and Dallas is the only one with a chance to catch me,” said Duell, who estimates he has about 30 NSS event victories. “But he would have to sweep with me going out first round.” - A possible but not probable program.

For Wolford, it was a smooth performance. His reaction times ranged from 0.010 to 0.058 and averaged 0.036. He went 0.010 against Randy Stansbury in round three and then 0.024 to 0.033 against Ray in the semifinals.

“I took it one round at a time,” Wolford said. “This was the first race I ever was as calm as could be. I went through my routine and just drove. The car performed well, it was steady all weekend.”

And it certainly was a satisfying return to racing.

“It’s absolutely a thrill and accomplishment to defeat one of the best racers in the sport,” said Wolford. “I’m still pinching myself to be sure this is real. It’s amazing how tough these racers are. To win this event is a dream come true.”

Saturday’s Notes

A smooth and steady inflow of NSS racers led to a top-quality field. After 27 cars came in on Thursday, the eventual count topped at 53 with the arrival of Bruce Sammet and his ’66 Chevrolet on Saturday morning.

By the end of four qualifying sessions ending during the first round of class runoffs Saturday afternoon, a total of 16 drivers were within 0.010 of their chosen indexes, an all-time record in the eight-year history of the DDC.

Overall, the field covered the smallest spread in event history. A half-tenth secured the No. 33 and 34 spots by Mike Kurz and Dallas Schultz, respectively. A plus 0.1 run got a No. 46 position, by NSS/D class champion Tom Hoffman.
     
How good was this group? Just two racers were minus index, Doug Wright at 9.485 on a 9.50 and Gene Will with a 12.468 on a 12.50 number.
     
Holland’s qualifying accomplishment wasn’t without cost, however, as after the run he discovered transmission fluid leaking from a microscopic opening in the torque converter. He put the car up on jack stands and worked most of Friday evening to plug the pinhole.
     
After class runoffs were completed on Saturday, it appeared he took the car back to his shop for further work before making Sunday’s first eliminator session.
     
The class runoffs were conducted at a double-time pace due to a threat of rain. Just a few drops fell, however, not even an irritation or stoppage, and the racing was completed by 2:30 p.m. without errors or breakage.
     
Late Saturday afternoon, Duell was not only preparing for the evening awards banquet but also diagnosing a brake problem, a soft pedal due to a defective master cylinder.