FUEL ALTERED ELIMINATOR

Fuel Altered shoe Don Blackshear, Brookfield, Ohio, was this race’s final first-time IHRA professional class winner. There were six cars qualified for this Eliminator but they only ran two rounds of eliminations with the two quickest cars meeting in the final.

Blackshear drove the "Bullet Bob" machine to the win in the Nitro Altered division defeating Brian Hope in the final with a very respectable 6.168/227.79 clocking. Hope, in the "Pure Hell" entry, had the usual fuel altered handling/traction (take your pick) issues in the final and still ran a respectable 7.657, 203.29 for the runner-up points and money.

Fuel Alt Pit Notes

This class featured a number of other exciting firsts on Saturday, as Ron Hope in the “Rat Trap” provided a glimpse of drag racing history with a fire burnout to the delight of the full grandstands at Bradenton Motorsports Park and also raced and lost to his son, Brian, in the opening round.

Nitro Altered qualifying - 1. Ron Maroney 6.427/191.77; 2. Ron Hope 6.580/212.11; 3. Don Blackshear 6.702/141.95; 4. Mike Hilsabeck 7.444, 139.49; 5. Brian Hope 8.589/144.30; 6. Shane Harter, 10.396/70.72.