Saturday Eliminations

The first pair out in the first round, Jimmy Young in his dragster versus John Hale’s flopper, set the tone for eliminations. This would be a driver’s race.

At the first glimmer of the last yellow light both drivers left. Hale put a slight holeshot on Young and was way out in front. Young left with a handful of brakes and still had a traction issue immediately. Hale got to the 330 in 2.98 seconds while a sliding Young got there a half-second behind. At 660ft Hale was still ahead by couple of thou but he was only going 119 mph to Young’s 179. Hale was never able to get the car to recover and Young drove around him to the win with a 7.016/196.93 to Hale’s 7.661/155.91.  Young is the first alternate in DRO series history to advance past the first round.

The “Violator” F/C with Shawn Bowen between the tubes faced off against Chicago racer Turbo Tim Cullinan’s rail. At the hit Bowen left first putting a tenth of a second holeshot on the dragster driver. Bowen had a .096 RT to Cullinan’s .199. As it turned out Bowen needed that holeshot to win. Cullinan’s small tire fueler spun the tires as did Bowen and both cars labored to the eighth-mile in just under five seconds. Bowen’s speed to the eighth was 143 and Cullinan’s was 156, so neither car was under full throttle at half-track. Both men fought their cars to the finish with Bowen getting to the stripe first with a 7.493/166.50 to Cullinan’s 7.566/158.80.

Mark Irwin drove Dale Suhr’s “Orange Crate.” (Jeff Burk photo)

Romine and his flopper and Dale Suhr’s fueler were the next pair up. Owner Suhr and driver Irwin had a troubled weekend and their struggles continued against Romine. Irwin’s car coughed and stumbled right off the starting line while in the other lane the “Man O’ War” Mustang made two furlongs in 5.800 seconds for the win and low ET of the meet honors.

Number-one qualifier Sanders made a competition bye when Farndon couldn’t answer the call, running a 7.661/120+.

The sun had long set by the time the semifinal round began with first alternate Jimmy Young in his fueler staging against last year’s winner Mark Sanders in his “Mr. Explosive” Mustang. Sanders put a big holeshot on the dragster driver, had a better 60-foot time and was leading by .107 sec when the flopper made a sudden right turn and Sanders was forced to abort the run. That put the first alternate into a final round for the first time in the history of the DRO series. Young legged it through the traps recording his best speed and ET of the meet with a 6.023/+235.93 effort.

The other semifinal pairing featured a couple of two-time DRO champs, Romine and Bowen, in what promised to be a monumental race. Sadly, it was not. Bowen must have had problems as he staged as when the green flashed he barely moved then clicked off the motor (no oil pressure). In the other lane Romine ran his fourth straight 5-second pass with a 5.861/244.92 and was headed to a final round race with the series point leader; a Funny car against a dragster.