Bazz Young (Scott Bessee photo)

The first pair out in front of a Standing Room Only crowd saw a pair of Chicago racers, Marc White in the “Flashback” Pontiac versus Mike Minick in the “Chi-Town Hustler” ‘79 Omni 024. White had low ET of the meet in qualifying with a 5.706 and looked to be the favorite, but two things happened to spoil that scenario. Minick left first, putting a .018 holeshot on White and he streaked to a 5.776/237.55 lap while White broke the rear end at about 500 feet and coasted to a losing 6.442.

The next pair featured Bazz Young in just his second season in the car versus new points leader Shawn Bowen. Bowen had issues with his performance in the last qualifying lap Friday and was unable to solve the problem for Saturday. In the meantime number 8 qualifier Bazz Young motored into the semi-finals with a 6.235/226 effort.

Matt Schramel photo

The next pairing featured Cruz Pedregon against Brian Stewart driving his ‘76 Mustang.

The race was all Pedregon from front to back. Cruz had a .078 RT combined with a pistons-burning 5.848/237.96. Stewart’s mount labored to a 6.220/2110.18, well off their previous laps. Stewart’s tuner, Jim Stanke said, “I just took too much out of the engine. I didn’t think the track would be as good as it turned out to be.”

The final match was between journeyman NHRA Big Show driver Jon Capps driving Frank Ousley’s “Crop Duster” Mopar and former NHRA national event racer Ronny Young in the “Blue Max” ‘78 Arrow. Capps cut the best light of the race with a .051 and ran a 5.775/236.51 to Young’s tire-spinning 5.920/250.18. Unfortunately, Capps had a massive blower explosion in the lights had some trouble with the chutes deploying on time and drove into the sand. Capps did a masterful driving job keeping the car straight and as a result the car wasn’t damaged by its trip into the sand. Unfortunately, the explosion broke the windshield and the supercharger, and the team didn’t have a spare of either. That is sometimes what happens with semi-pro nitro teams.