It was a remarkable two rounds of qualifying that resulted in the first ever DRO Series all 5-second field.

Aussie ex-pat Barrie “Bazz” Young and tuner Jerry Newman were on the bump with a career best 5.997/240.81 effort. It was Young’s first 5-second pass in a nitro coupe.

Leading the qualifying with a motor killing 5.706/250.55 was DRO ET record holder Marc White driving the Fred Mandoline-tuned “Flashback” ’77 Firebird. Former UDRA Pro Stock racer Brian Stewart and tuner Jim Stanke ran a career best 5.829/232.79 to qualify second. Big show drivers Jon (brother of Ron) Capps and Cruz Pedregon racing in their first DRO series event both also qualified for the quickest DRO field in history.

Despite the fact that the DRO Challenge cars made 34 laps on Friday without oiling the track once, there was still the kind of drama you would expect when there are just eight spots and 17 cars trying to fill them. The biggest shock of the event was that neither defending DRO National Champ and points leader John Hale nor IHRA defending Champ Peter Gallen made the field. The arch-rivals were paired up against each other in qualifying and each had their cars on “kill” when they came to the line for the first qualifying lap. They had just watched White turn in a 5.706/250 lap so they knew the Cordova track surface would hold whatever they threw at it. Both cars turned on the top bulb. Gallen, who has the only car using a pedal clutch, staged and brought the RPM’s up and then something went awry and Gallen left before the tree was activated, followed
immediately by Hale in his Guy Tipton-tuned Camaro.