Rex Kelley once again found his ‘63 Stingray in the middle of the field, (4.15/175), but the Alabama ‘Vette remains haunted; in the first round against Keith Baker, the red Chevy once again began making its own decisions on direction.
Bill Kuhlmann’s burnouts fogged in the racetrack almost as heavily as his launches. The Missourian’s massive nitro power was far more than the track could handle.
Local 10.5 hitter Scott Lowery’s nearly stock-dimension ‘57 Bel-Air was one of two turbocharged entries in Pro Nitrous. The 565-cubic inch Rat-powered monster never reached the finish line under power in qualifying but did hit a coasting 5.12/138 during testing.
Lynam lives! Eight runs in thirty hours netted a best of “only” 3.99/187 but the reigning ADRL PX World Champ will do battle in the final round in Memphis after knocking off Todd Tutterow, Josh Hernandez and Jason Scruggs.
Chuck Ford has used every 2006 ADRL test session to tune the team’s NHRA-legal ex-Mike Ashley ‘67 Mustang. Solid 4.05/182 performance came from the “red car” before qualifying, after which all attention was focused on Martin’s ADRL-only “yellow car”. The ‘Dozer’s 3.99/185 only made the field ninth (!) but drove around an Eddie Ware holeshot in the opener before becoming the answer to yet another Jason Scruggs trivia question.
Rarely-seen view of the World’s Largest Skull obscured the fact that Terry Leggett spent the event watching his Banshee Studios Willys go down the track; Pro Mod pioneer Tommy Mauney was brought in to drive but a 4.02/182 best fell to Hernandez’s 3.99 in
round one.
Andy McCoy’s ‘57 Bel-Air rolling billboard finally got a chance to run in front of the local fans but his tough debut season continued with a 4.13/177 best and a DNQ in Pro Extreme.
Bennie McDonald continued his three-second season; the PSI-blown ‘53 ‘Vette hit 3.97/184 to qualify seventh before losing a skatefest to Todd Bauknecht in the opener.
Ron Muenks took the “Little Black Bat” through multiple test passes but a 4.19/171 best in qualifying kept the veteran Missouri match racer out of the PX show.
