Rick Williamson in the Team Craig dragster tuned by John Russell also stepped up. The March Meet winner went 5.79 at 233.88 to take the number-two spot.

Wiley veteran Jim Murphy in his Roland Leong-tuned WWII dragster stepped up to the third slot.

Conditions were prime when Adam Sorokin in Bob McLennan’s “Champion Speed Shop Special” pulled to the starting line. The sun had gone down and the air was a few degrees cooler. Sorokin had one of his patented telepathic reaction times of .057 -- the car went sixty feet quicker than any other car at .997 -- and seemed to be on one of those runs when just before the 330-ft mark the red dragster turned into a giant fireball. The fire went out just as fast as it started and the car coasted across the finish line, leaving Sorokin in the fourth slot.

The reason behind Sorokin’s ‘super nova’ impression on that pass was that all the cam bolts sheared off leaving the supercharger exposed to a large air/fuel mixture and a giant magneto.

“That was gonna be a sixty run,” stated Sorokin. “It was pulling so hard, then it quit. I saw this huge orange flash and my head got thrown back against the cage.”

Dusty Green would move up to the fifth spot, followed by “Brother“ Bret Williamson, and rounding out the field was Tyler Hilton.