After fortunately suffering mostly cosmetic damage in a high-speed, top-end crash in the second round of qualifying, Rob Hale returned on raceday with his ’68 Camaro looking more like a dirt modified entry than the 10-wide campaigner it really is. “I really thought it was going to go over,” Hale recalled. “It just kept sliding forever and I had plenty of time to think about what was getting wrecked. I had just put a new front suspension and new full-floater rear end on it.” Despite the less-than-aerodynamic look, Hale made it around Ken Rainwater with a 4.75 pass in the opening round of eliminations, but fell to Kirk in round two.
After struggling early with a new Taylor Lastor-built 771 cubic incher in his ’92 Camaro, Savannah, GA’s Craig Miller finally found the tune-up he needed to qualify 7th with a 4.746 pass. He got past Bobby Cole with a 4.76 in round one, then made it to a share in the semi-final money with a 4.65 win in his quarter-final match against Marcus Birt. Joining Kirk, Barfield and Miller as a semi-finalist was Michael Robinson in the VIP Racing Camaro.
LIMITED STREET
Darrin Hoyle unleashed a 4.872-seconds run at 154.65 mph to qualify number one with this Saturday night pass in Limited Street. Hoyle remained in the fours on raceday, going 4.97 in a first-round bye, then 4.88 to get around Eric Dillard and reach the semi finals.
Carlton Thompson held the top spot with a 4.993 until Hoyle’s late-night heroics. Still, he started number two and also reached the semis after going 5.06 and 4.96 to dispose of Chuck Lawrence and fellow Floridian Carl Gilbert, respectively, in the early rounds.
