Bazz Young and ex-Top Fuel racer Fred Farndon, in his first year of competition in the series, were the first two pair in the lanes. Young and veteran tuner Jerry Newman made a statement with a 4.466/165.33 pass that would stand as Low ET and Top Speed of the first session. Newman’s years of match racing nitro on marginal tracks were a distinct advantage at this race. Farndon had to shut off and didn’t get an ET. 

Even though the car is not named for the famous racehorse, it seemed appropriate that “Man O’ War” would make his debut in Kentucky.

Paul Romine, a two-time DRO Champion (2009-2010), made his return after “retiring” his Indianapolis-based team for two years. In his first event since re-acquiring and rebuilding his Mike Spitzer built “Man O’ War” Mustang, Romine was matched against defending DRO champ Bowen in the first qualifying lap.

Both floppers left at almost the same instant and both drivers immediately began working the throttle pedal trying to get to the cars to the finish line and off of the guardrails. Bowen got there first with a 5.108/97.79 with Romine trailing with a shut-off 5.978/77.09 effort.  

The last car down the track was the tribute “Logghe” chassis Challenger shoed by Troy Ray. Ray made the best burnout of the event and then did something you never see these days -- dry hops! Unfortunately, it was discovered that he had a problem with the chutes and the start line crew shut him off.

The second round a couple of hours later was just as entertaining as Young again lined up against Farndon. He improved his effort from the first round with an excellent for the track 4.271/152.92 while Farndon hit the throttle and then didn’t move. His throttle cable malfunctioned.

Up again were Bowen and Romine. Mike Bowen is known for his aggressive tuneups on every lap and his driver, son Shawn, is known for not lifting. Their reputations remain intact as the Pontiac left the line and immediately went way up on the spinning, smoking Goodyears, but the driver never lifted and he used up the entire track recording an unreal for the conditions 3.9455/176.86. In the other lane Romine’s Mike Cavalieri-tuned Mustang recorded the best 60-foot time of the event with a .9608, but then also spun the tires hard. Romine lifted again and coasted to a 5.7178/81.54 effort.

Ray again made a single but again had issues and coasted to the finish line.

ELIMINATIONS

Eliminations began right on time at 7 p.m. Saturday night. Once again the track crew had been spraying and dragging the track frequently prior to the first round of eliminations in a serious attempt to provide the nitro cars with a track but again high humidity of 85% plus and 125 water grains in the air (very high) made getting the tires to hook very difficult if not impossible.