The “War Horse” of Tocco & Garten  (Jim Kelso photo)

The first pair of the semifinals saw Krabill and McIntire first up. At the green “Hollywood” was out of the gate first, but by 330 feet the orange ‘69 Camaro started to charge, drove around Krabill, and stopped the clocks at a record setting 5.70 at 251.06 mph to Krabill’s respectable 5.93/241.11. McIntire’s 5.70 was good enough to back up the earlier 5.68 and set a new IHRA Nitro Funny Car ET record.

The other side of the ladder pitted Boychuk against Rupert. On paper this race figured to be a street fight but wasn’t. Neither driver had a great reaction time; Rupert left first, .111 to a .145. Boychuk hooked, spun the tires, and coasted while Rupert was “pedaling” the throttle himself trying to get the “Black Plague” Camaro to hook, which finally happened allowing the Champ to make a 6.11/246.35 to Boychuk’s coasting 16.37/46.96 effort.

Jason Rupert, 2014 IHRA AA/FC Champion.  (Jim Kelso photo)

As the skies grew darker and the desert air got cooler the two finalists pulled to the approach area with concert lights flashing and dry ice fog permeating the starting line.  Both drivers did their burnouts. Speculation was high to see how quick McIntire might go, and there were those who felt Rupert didn’t have that big number one on his car for nothing. But this race was almost over before it began. 

Rupert, with the pedal clutch, was dead red with a -.033 RT foul that gave the win to McIntire. The red-light loss had to be galling to Rupert as McIntire shook the tires so violently that it broke the rear end, free-wheeling the engine and launching the blower off the Hemi. Both drivers coasted to the stripe with 13+ second ET’s but thanks to Rupert’s red-light McIntire’s 13.92/56.7 was good for the win.