Round two pitted Knapp against Knowles with Knapp running a faster 4.0702 ET to Knowles’ slower 4.1715 ET. But, Knapp got too close to the timing cones on the top end and sent them flying into the wing of the Cheaper Than Therapy car. Howard Knowles was ducking his head and later found a red foam cone wedged into the wing just above his head upon getting out of the car. I believe he has added that to his memorabilia collection. Hitting the timing cones disqualified Knapp and put Knowles into the final.

The final round with Roger Lechtenberg driving Scott Gaulter’s “Nitro Madness” put all of the power to the ground with a low ET of the session of 3.8879 at 187 mph to give Knowles the first runner-up position with a 4.5961 ET at 134 mph.

It was quite a happy ending for Scott Gaulter, who has organized this event for the last nine years. Gaulter and his “Nitro Madness” car has been runner-up in previous years but have now taken home the top prize. Gaulter also found all of the prize money and contingency awards for this event and coordinated those efforts with the Eddyville Raceway management. In a few short years this has become a real signature event for the track and has brought good profits to the track that will be used for upgrades and keep America’s finest eighth-mile track running.

The “B” field race was just as hard fought with No. 1 qualifier Anthony “Corn Field” Whitfield taking on newcomer Justin Shaffer. Whitfield took a ride into the tall Iowa corn last year with a go-pro camera on top of the roll cage that gave everyone a real-time look at the experience on the 2013 event video.

This was his race, and he put Shaffer on the trailer with a 4.4349 ET to a slower 4.7296 ET for the young Shaffer. This was the first year that father and son both have raced with team cars at the event. Dave Shaffer has raced all nine Fuel Altered events and was very proud to have his son race with him and not be just a crewmember any longer.