Kris Krabill (far lane) lines up against the “War Horse” of Tocco & Garten (Rene Aguilar photo)

“Hollywood” Kris Krabill driving Bucky Austin and Mike O’Brien’s Bardahl-backed Mopar was on hand as well as the much anticipated Dale Armstrong tribute “Speed Racer” Dodge Omni driven by Will Martin. There are some modifications to the body that caused some talk in the pits but since the NHRA has approved the body it is legal.

Reigning IHRA AA/FC World Champ Jason Rupert finally went through with his threat and had a “pedal” clutch in his “Black Plague” ‘69 Camaro flopper. There are rumors going around that Rupert has a new car in the works that may debut at the historic March Meet at Bakersfield, Calif.

Tim Boychuk’s tribute to “Hawaiian” Roland Leong.  (Jim Kelso photo)

McIntire opened the first of two rounds of competition with a respectable 5.82/246.57 that was good enough to get the number-one qualifying position. They had some rain issues so the second round of qualifying was postponed to Saturday morning. In the Saturday AA/FC qualifying round McIntire and his team fired a howitzer round at the rest of the field, laying down a stunning 5.68/256.36 effort. 

McIntire’s lap distanced the veteran from the rest of the F/C field by .018. No one else improved on ET or position. The next closest qualifier was Boychuk in the Roland Leong-tuned “Hawaiian” at 5.86/231.12. Third was Rupert at 5.89/239.95. The bump for eight cars was Martin’s 6.34/190.78.

The first round of elimination went according to Hoyle, as all but one of the top qualified cars easily moved on to the second round. The best race of the second round was between defending IHRA series champ Jason Rupert and the current Northwest hitter Mark “Mr. Explosive” Sanders and his tuner, son Jake.

Sanders knew he would have to cut a good light and run his best ET of the meet to have a chance of advancing past Rupert. Dad Sanders did his job with an otherworldly for nitro cars .005 RT to Rupert’s pedestrian .113. Rupert ran his best ET of the meet to that point with a 5.845 lap while in the other lane Sanders drove to a 5.984 and lost by just .022 at the stripe.