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Crossing the eighth-mile stripe in a display of perfect Nitro Unicycle balance, North Carolina’s Tommy Grimes heads for a 6.37/217 blast for the second qualifying slot. Note that fellow Tarheel Jay Turner, whose front wheel is visible in the foreground, is matching Grimes’ wheels-up stance all the way. |
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| Phil Schmidt’s 186-inch Top Fueler had already qualified at 6.59/214 when it left the line on this final qualifying session shot. At the thousand-feet mark, Schmidt’s right-lane ride began listing heavily to starboard; by eleven hundred feet, it was finally on its side. Schmidt and bike slid through the lights at 6.69/171 but the California rider was on his feet and jumping over the wall to greet the paramedics only a few hundred feet past the finish line. The bike continued at high speed all the way through the shutdown area, clearing most of the sand trap before landing in the catch net. Schmidt suffered only a few scrapes but the “California Gold” TFer was destroyed. | |||||
Jayhawker David Larson uses only the left sidewall of the only tire on the ground while never lifting and still managed an 8.34/157 on his nitro-burning, carbureted Pro Dragster entry. |
Completely crossed up while under power and only using half of one tire, John Breckenridge still pounded out a 6.79/209 on this terrifying run with his Washington-based 150-inch nitro-burning direct-drive Pro Fuel mount. |
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When he wasn‘t wrestling his bike away from the centerline, Ohioan Steve Stordeur was guiding his showstopper to a 6.40/222.40 Gateway track speed record which missed the AHDRA TF World mark by only two miles per hour. |
More than just “up on the tire”, second-generation stormer Armon Furr blasted to a 6.585/215.07 on Jay Turner’s 6.580/211.71 Pro Fuel World Records during qualifying. Although he didn’t back up the speed mark, the reigning champ of the direct-drive, small-motored fuelers mopped up in eliminations. |
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