QUALIFYING

(Joe McHugh photo) 

(Jeff Burk photo)

Due to a couple of last minute withdrawals (Paul Romine’s car was still in the chassis shop and Bazz Young, a VP at Snap-On tools, had a business issue he had to attend to), there were just five cars vying for a scheduled 8-car field.

Despite the short field, qualifying on the ultra-smooth and ultra-tacky Tulsa Raceway Park surface was highly entertaining. The traction on the quarter mile was so good that a couple of well-known teams who were chunking the center out of their Mickey Thompson slicks requested after the first round of Eliminations that the track prep crew just clean the track and not put down any more glue or rubber for the rest of the race in an attempt to stop the tires from “chunking”.

The Low Qualifier for the fourth time this year was Shawn Bowen tuned by father, Mike, with assistance from brother, Scott. Bowen’s Hemi-powered ’77 Firebird first ran a 6.14/225 but then improved to a 5.921/242.88 for the top spot. Washington State racer Mark Sanders ended up as the second qualifier. His “Mr. Explosive” ran a 6.11 to be the low qualifier in the first round and then stepped up to a 5.979/241.63 but still moved down the ladder to second behind the Bowens.