Qualifying Order:

1. Brian Stewart 5.760/241.84
2. Shawn Bowen 5.785/249.39
3. Ronny Young 5.794/254.18
4. Dennis Taylor 6.182/197.91
5. Bazz Young 6.225/226.24
6. Doc Halladay 6.486/214.45
7. John Hale 7.491/129

ELIMINATIONS

Saturday night brought 70-degree temps and cool, dry air. The grandstands were full of fans and they were treated to the sound and smell of nitro cars warming up in the pits.

The first round of Eliminations went off at 6 p.m. sharp Saturday night when guest starter and hall of fame starter Larry Sutton signaled for the first pair.

Series regular Bazz Young and California’s Dennis Taylor, who was racing at his first DRO event, rolled through the water, did their burnouts and staged. Taylor had grenaded an engine in qualifying and was racing with his spare. His opponent, Aussie ex-pat Young, who is rapidly improving as a driver, saw yellow and left first just ahead of the ‘72 Mustang driven by Taylor. Young had a .106 RT to Taylor’s .116. Young then ran an off-pace 6.109/223.32 and his engine tossed the rods in the lights while Taylor charged at the top end getting a 6.103/238.01 timing.  

Former Alky Funny star Dennis Taylor has struggled with the transition to nitro but made the trip from LA to Tulsa to support his good friend and track operator Todd Martin. Taylor had massive motor failure on his one and only qualifying lap but put the spare in and ran Saturday with damaging a thing.

Young got the holeshot win by just four-thousandths of a second but his engine expired because a fuel fitting broke just as the car crossed the finish line “leaning” the engine for fuel and causing several rods to exit the block. It ended his race day.

The next pair featured a couple of ex-NHRA big show shoes with ageless Doc Halladay’s “Telestar” going up against Ronny Young and the “Blue Max”. It was a must win for Young in order for him to have any chance to win the championship. Young dispatched Halladay with a 5.926/244.87 to Doc’s 6.249/221.13.

The next race was even more dramatic if possible. It matched up point leader Bowen against defending DRO national champion John Hale. You could feel the tension and see it on the faces of the crews as they brought their cars into the staging lanes. Both cars did thunderous burnouts, backed up and promptly staged. Hale had to beat Bowen to have any chance of taking the championship. If Bowen won he clinched his first title.

Then the unexpected happened. Bowen is known for his great reaction times and has the best average RT of all DRO competitors. But every race is unique and Bowen bulbed, turning on his first red light of the season with a -.044 RT. In the other lane Hale ran his car to the eyes but only recorded a 6.030/215.13 and stayed alive in his quest for a threepeat.

“After blowing the tires off on both qualifying rounds I knew I had to just get the car down the track,” Hale’s tuner, Guy Tipton, said after the pass. “The first two laps I had the same tune-up we had when we won last year but it was just too much.”