(Jon Van Daal photos)

This left Morgan to take a solo pass, however he had a massive fire from half track on. The car was repaired to face Damien Harris and a close tussle ensued with Morgan keeping the top qualifier at bay with a better reacting 4.745 turning back a second best 4.812.

In the final Morgan faced another Rapisarda car in Cory McClenathan and this time the American had way too much for Morgan. This saw the American journeyman racer take a decent lead off the line (.070 to .150) and parlayed that into a 4.685/314.17 to 4.675/317.87 hole-shot win.

“Cory Mac” McClenathan (Jon Van Daal photo)

Australians are quite use to seeing Cory McClenathan competing down under and thanks to Santo Rapisarda and his Rapisarda Racing International team they again saw the likable Californian competing at the inaugural East Coast Nationals. Qualifying was a hit and miss affair thanks to a cooling track and when session three was rained out and moved to Sunday morning McClenathan finally hit his stride and qualified second with a 4.837 at a slowing 246.30 mph.