SUNDAY FINAL - Jenkins, Lynch, Hopkins and Schroeder

Emerge Victorious in Orlando

(10-16-2005) - A long weekend of heads-up drag racing in Florida came to an exciting conclusion on Sunday night with the running of the final rounds of eliminations at the 13th annual World Street Nationals at Orlando Speed World Dragway.

The event, which has become the most important three days on the street car drag racing calendar, had larger crowds and larger car counts than ever in its history. Some of the top racers in North America and Europe fought it out over two days of qualifying to garner berths in the four 32-car fields. Please Read On !!

In Super Pro Street, Pro Modified legend Shannon Jenkins made his WSN debut a successful one as he parlayed a deadly consistent string of qualifying and elimination round performances behind the wheel of his 1968 Camaro into a $10,000 payday. Jenkins, who qualified in the No. 2 spot, took out No. 5 man Tony Gillig in the final, 6.473, 220.96 to 6.704, 190.75. It was just another of the 6.40s that the veteran doorslammer competitor from Alabama pulled out of the hat at OSWD.

"Well, I mean, we had a perfect race car here this weekend," Jenkins said. "It was flawless - we didn't have to touch anything at all. You don't have many weekends when things go that way, but the Speedtech Nitrous Camaro was on a string, and when the car is on a string things just go well. It was like a bracket car - running 6.40s all weekend long.

"There were a lot of good cars and racers here, and that's why we came down, so that we could introduce people to the Speedtech Nitrous products and let them see how they perform. The results speak for themselves.

"We'll be back next year, for sure," Jenkins responded when asked if he thought a trip to Orlando in October would become part of his regular schedual now. "In fact we might be back with a 10.5 car along with the Super Pro Street car - you never know."

In other Super Pro Street action, Annette Summer had her turbocharged 1963 Corvette running extremely well in the Florida heat and humidity as she paced the early going. Summer finished the preliminary rounds as the No. 1 qualifier on the strength of the 6.404-second pass she laid down in the Friday's opening session. The No. 1 ranking was good enough for a $1,000 check and a coveted WSN trophy. Summer also notched the top speed of the meet with a mark of 227.84 mph.

In Outlaw 10.5, defending class champion and perennial tough guy Tim Lynch brought his 2002 Mustang Cobra south from his Woodstock, Georgia, home to show any and all pretenders to his title just who the boss is. Lynch, the first driver to put an Outlaw 10.5 car into the sixes, was on his game again in Orlando, qualifying second with a best elapsed time of 6.976. He was right behind fellow Georgian Steve Kirk Jr., who posted a mark of 6.961 to grab the top spot and the $1,000 bonus. Lynch had the top speed of the weekend, however, his 205.10 edging out Kirk's 203.80.

In the final round, Lynch lined up beside Brian Carpenter, who came from the No. 12 qualifying position to earn the dubious privilege of taking on the most feared competitor in the class. In the big showdown, Lynch got away first and had a relatively easy time of it, taking the win light 7.175, 206.18 to 8.339, 164.77 to claim the $7,500 top prize.

"This is an excellent feeling," said Lynch. "This is the second championship in a row for us, and I don't think that that's ever been done before in our class, so we're real proud of that.

"It's nice to have the prize money so we can pay for the trip down and home. I might even be able to take the crew out for something besides McDonald's for a change - maybe even a steak house.

"Carl and the folks here in Orlando always puts on a great show. It's some of the toughest racing in the country. We knew we would have to be real consistent and get the car down the track every time. We weren't the fastest car all day, but we got where we needed to be. My hat is off to the people who come down here year after year. it's simply a real good show."

It was an Orlando rookie taking the honors in Radial Tires on Sunday night. Wade Hopkins, of Tupelo, Mississippi, qualified his 1989 Ford Mustang third in the field with a best-of-four effort of 7.961, 177.58. His opponent in the class final was No. 17 qualifier Smooky Hall, who left the line .002-seconds too soon, handing the $2,500 winners purse to Hopkins.

"We didn't really get to work on the car until Tuesday and then we had to pack up and leave Memphis on Thursday," Hopkins said. "It was just an unbelievable thrash. Fortunately all of my sponsors have been great to me, and they helped out a lot. TCI, Procharger, Southern Speed and all the others. They jumped in with parts and support and allowed us get here tonight. We actually had parts shipped here to the track so we could keep going.

"It has been a wonderful weekend and a whole lot of fun. It's my first time at this event. In fact, I haven't been in the car for two years. It was set up as a Limited Street car but I saw the opportunity to reconfigure it with a stock suspension and bring it here to Orlando. I thought we could do well and we did."

No. 1 qualifier in Radial Tires was Shannon Wren, who led the way with his 7.927. Top speed of the weekend was the 187.77 posted by chassis builder David Wolf.

Perhaps the most dramatic turn of events of the weekend came when the final two Heavy Street competitors rolled to the line. Two-time class champion John Schroeder, of Stamford, Connecticut, lined his Leo Barnaby-built late-model Camaro up beside Rob Golobo's Steve Grebeck-constructed machine, also a late-model Camaro. Golobo, the defending champ in the class, was the No.1 qualifier on the weekend with a mark of 7.484 while Schroeder took low E.T honors with his 7.481. Jon Anderson had the best speed of the weekend with 188.83.

On paper this should have been one of the best match-ups of the weekend, but in the end the reality of the matter was far different. As Schroeder rolled in to stage, he realized that he didn't have first gear. His crew chief told him to move in and leave in second gear. With a sure win in hand, Golobo pulled the trigger .050-seconds too soon, handing the victory to Schroeder, who was for all practical purposes dead in the water. It was a $4,000 mistake for Golobo.

"I couldn't believe it - I got up there to stage and I had no first gear," said Schroeder. "I was yelling at my crew chief Scotty and telling him that I had no first gear! I just kept yelling and getting more and more excited. He told me to roll it in the best I could and leave in second gear. So I went in in second and just kept jerking the car forward and jerking the car forward, and then he left. I couldn't believe it, but the game plan worked.

"I think we had him shocked with the 7.48 we ran the round before. He asked one of the crew guys where we got that from, and he told him that we had it all the time. We would likely have run a .45 or .44 in the final run, but we didn't need it.

"We had a real stressful weekend, but everything's all right now. We won this thing two years in a row and then lost it last year when Golobo took us out in the semifinals. We have it back now and it's great!"

A Close Call for Steve Miller

A rough weekend at the track - Buffalo, Minnesota's Steve Miller struggled for two days to qualify his usually reliable turbocharged 1999 Chevy S-10 truck for the Super Pro Street field. After the first qualifying session on Friday morning he was dead last at No. 44. He bumped up to the 36th spot on his second attempt but was knocked back down to 52nd with just one chance remaining to join the elite 32 heading for the elimination rounds on Sunday. On Saturday evening he and his team finally put it all together, and their last-ditch effort of 6.966, 202.29 earned them a berth in the field at No. 24.

Their relief was destined to be short-lived, however, as Miller rolled up to face No. 9 qualifier Billy Glidden in the first round. Soon after the launch, a huge fireball erupted from under the hood of Miller's truck. He exited the vehicle with the help of the OSWD safety crew as the carbon-fiber body began to burn ferociously, sending a plume of thick, black smoke into the air. The fire soon was extinguished, and Miller was fine, but the truck will need some serious TLC before it's ready to take to the track again.

Hang on, Sandman!

Veteran street car competitor Tony "Sandman" Williams has seen it all and done it all in his long career, but by his own admission the Memphis-based hitter has never gone for a ride like the one he took in the first round of Super Pro Street eliminations.

Williams, who qualified his 1969 Camaro in the No.12 spot, was up against No. 21 qualifier Timothy Baptista when the wheels fell off, literally. Just off the line, Williams' car launched into a towering wheelstand, going fully vertical with all four wheels clear of the track before slamming down and bouncing several times.

"I have never experienced anything like that before, and I don't want to ever experience it again," Williams said. "The wheels just broke off the wheelie bar and the car stood straight up - I never had a chance to react. I was just looking up into the sky. The car wasn't hurt too bad, thankfully, so we'll be back. This is Orlando, after all - the best street car race in the country."

Summer Storms - Super Pro Street top qualifier Annette Summer continues to impress this weekend, winning her first round with a pass of 6.54, 219.03 over a struggling Jim Weins. The round got off to a shaky start, as Summer didn't do her burnout just right, and husband Vernon had her back up for a second try. The engine died as she prepared to light up the tires again, and for a few tense seconds the car barked and snapped as she coolly worked to bring it back to life. Summer quickly regrouped, did her burnout and edged to the line. She then went on to the victory as Weins had trouble at mid track.

Her elapsed time and speed were second-quickest of the round, with friend and former teammate Shannon Jenkins taking the top honors with his 6.46, 221.45 mark.

Summer is driving the Gotham City Racing turbocharged Corvette, which went to the top of the class by virtue of the 6.404 elapsed time she posted on Friday. She later added the top speed mark to her list of accomplishments when she wheeled the 'Vette through the top-end traps at 226.35 mph during Saturday's final qualifying session.

First thing this morning Summer's husband and crew chief Vernon informed his wife that they only had enough intercooler ice on hand for one run, to which he added, "we're going to have to go and get a bunch more ice, because I plan to be here for a long time today."

Dukin' it out, LS1 style - The bad boys out of Michigan were at it again at this weekend's World Street Nationals. The Hardcore Racing team, who put their LS1-powered Trans Am into the sevens last winter in Bradenton were back with a new car and a new mountain to climb.

Hardcore owner Ronnie Duke purchased the 2005 GTO as a "roller" from Chris Duncan and Jay "Da Tinman" Ater of Chris Duncan Race Cars and fit it out with the express purpose of cracking the six-second barrier, again with an LS1-powered, single power-adder car. They knew the machine, driven by Jason McNeil, was capable of running the number, but they were expecting to have to wring the new piece out before their goals were realized.

As a testimony to their new in-house engine program, however, the car ran a solid 6.955, 202.65 during qualifying on Saturday, opening the door to Duke's plans to take the car Pro Mod racing next season.

"We now officially have the first single power-adder equipped, LS1-powered car into the sixes, so we're going to move on with our Pro Mod program," Duke said. "We'll spend a lot of time testing over the winter in Bradenton with an eye to getting down into the 6.40s." Won't a 375-cubic-inch small block-powered car in Pro Mod raise some eyebrows among the traditional big-motor crowd?

Final Qualifying Results - Top Five

Super Pro Street

Annette Summer - 6.404, 220.21
Shannon Jenkins - 6.490, 214.08
John Gullett - 6.505, 220.80
Steve King - 6.560, 216.97
Tony Gillig - 6.567, 214.89

Low E.T. - Annette Summer - 6.404
Top Speed - Annette Summer - 226.35

Outlaw 10.5

Steve Kirk Jr. - 6.961, 203.80
Tim Lynch - 6.976, 205.10
Terry Robbins - 7.012, 193.46
Richard Sexton - 7.029, 198.54
Joel Greathouse - 7.063, 208.57

Low E.T. - Steve Kirk Jr. - 6.961
Top Speed - 208.57

Heavy Street

Rob Golobo - 7.484, 187.50
John Schroeder - 7.515, 183.56
Marino Cintron - 7.549, 183.33
Jon Anderson - 7.570, 188.83
Tony Nesbitt - 7.598, 167.37

Low E.T. - Rob Golobo - 7.484
Top Speed - Jon Anderson - 188.83

Radial Tires

Shannon Wren - 7.927, 178.67
Michael Dees - 7.960, 183.41
Wade Hopkins - 7.961, 177.58
Troy Perez - 8.042, 169.42
Pedro Apolito - 8.090, 176.12

Low E.T. - Shannon Wren - 7.927
Top Speed - David Wolfe - 187.77

Saturday Notes

Outlaw 10.5 Update - The top six Outlaw 10.5 spots remained unchanged from Friday thorough Saturday's first session. Perhaps the biggest improvement came from Chip Haveman of San Antonio, Texas. He closed Friday qualifying with a 7.653-second pass at 182.70 mph to take the No. 32 spot in the 32-car field. He found almost a half a second and more than 20 mph in his 2003 Ford Mustang in Saturday's early session. That moved him to the top third of the field, No. 8, with one attempt remaining.

It's Still Summer Time - Both the thermometer and the scoreboard here in central Florida indicate that. Annette Summer, of Aiken, South Carolina, has been the class of Super Pro Street here in Orlando through the first three of four qualifying sessions. Summer, a former Pro Street champion, has traded in her familiar pink nitrous-injected first-generation Camaro for a very wicked twin turbo-powered '63 Corvette, and it's serving her very well, to the tune of 6.404, 220.21, in fact.

Summer laid down the class-leading number in Saturday's first session behind the wheel of her Gotham City Racing-sponsored machine, and it has held up through three sessions thus far.

"We were in Dallas for the AMS event last weekend, and we had a lot of trouble with the headers, which kept us from making any boost," said Summer. "We went home, fixed everything and here we are. We're still nursing the headers, though, that's why we didn't make a run last night. It's hard to believe that headers need to be babied that way, but on a turbo car you have to do that.

"I actually clicked it off early," Summer said, refering to her 6.40 pass. "I thought I had the nose of the car past the scoreboard when I hit the chutes, but obviously I didn't, because the computer doesn't lie. Trust me - I'm going to run it out the back door for the rest of the weekend. We have worked so hard to get this car to run the way we know it can, and this is just so satisfying for everyone involved with the team, especially Mike Ashley of Gotham City Racing, Darrell Makins of Under Pressure Performance and Rick Head of Innovative Turbo."

Speed freak - On most weekends Scott Palmer can be found traversing drag strips across the country at speeds approaching 330 mph, so it's pretty clear that the veteran Top Fuel pilot is no stranger to the thrill of high-speed competition. But the Springfield, Missouri-based competitor has a background in the fast doorslammer ranks, and he's gone back to his roots here in Orlando this weekend. Palmer is wheeling a blown '63 Corvette in Super Pro Street, and he currently sits in the No. 24 spot with one qualifying session to go.

"I drove doorslammers for years around my home in Missouri before moving up first to an alcohol Funny Car and then to a Top Fuel dragster," Palmer said. "But I have always loved the door cars, so a friend of mine, Greg Matlock, and my father-in-law, Danny Martin, and I have put this Pro Mod car together. Danny and I actually ran the motor and driveline in the Funny Car, so we all just put our stuff together and came out here to run. We just got the car finished - this is our first time out with it.

"We ran a 7.02 last night, so we're pretty happy with the car at this point. We're looking forward to improving later today and then going some rounds on Sunday. This is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. The best door cars in the country are here. It's awesome. We're hoping to run the Corvette more next season, but we're looking at some pretty exciting new developments for the NitroPlate Top Fuel as well, so we'll just have to wait and see how everything shapes up. Right now we're just looking to enjoy ourselves.

It is his first rodeo, actually - There probably aren't many drag racers in the country with more experience than Alabama's Shannon Jenkins. A multi-time NHRA and IHRA Pro Modified champ, Jenkins is the consummate fast doorslammer competitor, but even this seasoned veteran can have new experiences, and the World Street Nationals just happen to be one of those.

Jenkins, who is in a battle for the No. 2 spot in IHRA championship points, is taking a "weekend off" to have some fun here in Florida. His Awesome Motorsports teammate Mike Castellana has already wrapped up the IHRA title, but before the final race of the year in two weeks, where he hopes to complete the first one-two team finish in IHRA Pro Mod history, Jenkins is trying his hand at some outlaw racing. This weekend he's driving the car that he won the IHRA and NHRA titles with in 2003, a car that Castellana then campaigned in 2004.

"We've run a couple of 6.49s, so the track here seems to real good," he said. "We're happy with the way we're running, but we're just here cooling our heels and having a good time. This deal is just a whole lot of fun - you have all kinds of good cars and good drivers from all over the country, and the racing is pretty serious. We just want to race smart, be consistent, go four rounds tomorrow and hopefully win some money before we go home tomorrow.

"My guys were here last year, and they told me how wild it really was," Jenkins said. "They told me that I had to be here, so we got the car ready and here we are. And they were right - it is a bunch of fun. I can't believe the number of cars and the huge crowds they have here. It's a great deal for the racers and the fans."

No sleep, but plenty of success - If there was an "Ironman" award this weekend, Outlaw 10.5 competitor Dan Parker would certainly be in the running, if not the hands-down choice. With a total of six hours of sleep in three days, Parker already has one big victory this weekend, and he has his sights set on another.

The chassis builder from Columbus, Georgia, flew in to Orlando early this morning after winning the American Drag Racing League event in Kennedale, Texas on Friday night.

"The last two weeks we have been working 15 hours a day to get my ten-five car and my girlfriend Erica's car ready to race," he said. "We cranked them on Wednesday and I made a couple of sixty-foot passes with mine. We had some problems with hers, so we weren't able to bring it here, unfortunately. We went over my car on Thursday and the guys in to shop loaded it up and brought it down here. It had never been down the race track under full power. The first pass we made today was a 7.50 at 190, which I think was real good.

Thursday night I flew to Kennedale to run a Pro Mod car in the ADRL race," Parker said. "We had some problems in the first session, but we regrouped and just continued to improve. We ran a pair of 4.17s on test passes, and the best anyone else did was 4.22. We then went 4.12 and eventually went 4.09 at 175 and change to set new track records for a nitrous Pro Mod. We went to the final against Rex Kelly, who went red and we took the win. Now we want to back it up with a good performance here in Orlando."

Friday Qualifying Results - Top Five

Super Pro Street

Annette Summer - 6.404, 220.21
Shannon Jenkins - 6.491, 219.51
Steve King - 6.560, 216.97
Ben Hopko - 6.652, 214.95
Tony Williams - 6.687, 211.96

Outlaw 10.5

Tim Lynch - 6.976, 205.10
Steve Kirk, Jr. - 6.987, 201.47
Terry Robbins - 7.012, 193.46
Richard Sexton - 7.029, 198.54
Joel Greathouse - 7.063, 208.57

Heavy Street

Rob Golobo - 7.484, 187.50
John Schroeder - 7.589, 181.15
Charlie Boy Micallef - 7.702, 179.35
David Beeson - 7.715, 178.53
Michael Martin - 7.722, 181.30

Radial Tire

Shannon Wren - 7.927, 178.67
Michael Dees - 7.960, 183.41
Pedro Apolito - 8.090, 176.12
Troy Perez - 8.100, 172.01
Corey Berry - 8.109, 177.86

FRIDAY NOTES - The Big Show is Under Way in Orlando

King sets tone -- Steve King had the low elapsed time of the 2004 meet among the Super Pro Street racers with a 6.613-second pass during eliminations en route to a semifinal finish.

And the Strasburg, Virginia, driver made a positive impression once again Friday. In the first session, he took his Hemi-powered '98 Viper on a 6.560-second ride at 216.97 mph at the hottest time of the day on a green track.

It was the best of the day until Annette Summer came along in her twin-turbo big block Corvette with a 6.404-second blast that was the best she has run in a turbo-powered car and Shannon Jenkins followed with the only 6.4-second run of the day.






Annette Summer, the 1994 NMCA Pro Street champion, kept the Gotham City Racing '63 Vette in the provisional No. 1 spot. Jenkins recorded a 6.491-second E.T. -- .087 of second off Summer's pace - to slide into the tentative No. 2 position.

King had less impressive results in the second session (7.24/155.03) in the evening session but remained third.

Thompson back -- Elliott Thompson, the No. 1 Heavy Street driver and only one to qualify in the 7.4-second range last year, promised that he would come back despite suffering burns in a first-round transmission fire in his last visit. The fireball that sent him to the hospital with second-degree burns on his hands had said, "We're not superstitious. We'll come back and be No. 1. We just haven't decided which class we'll run."

The 21-year-old from Horsham, Pennsylvania, said last October that he thought he might take his turbocharged '91 Camaro to the Outlaw 10.5 class. He did. But he wasn't No. 1 Friday. He was 25th in the 32-car line-up after Friday's opening session with a 7.685-second elapsed time at 187.73 mph.

Big Zeroes -- Joel Greathouse, of Oakland, Kentucky, was the lone Outlaw 10.5 driver in the 7.0-second range. He and his new Mustang led the 32-car field after the opening session with a 7.063-second pass at 208.57 mph. In the Radial Tires class, Michael Dees, of Vero Beach, Florida, put his 2000 Mustang in first place with an 8.065 trip down the quarter-mile. Pedro Apolito, another Floridian from Opa-Locka, had the only other 8.0-second performance -- an 8.090/176.12 in his '93 Camaro.

Sweet showing for Swede -- Swedish racer Mikael Lindahl, of Trollhattan, said what makes European drag racing so different from the American version is that Europeans have a much shorter season. At least in Scandinavia, Lindahl said, "We race only three months of the year. These guys (Americans) are so professional. It is much tougher here in the United States. They have more practice."

With only a 4.10-second appearance -- a career-best elapsed time -- at Dragstock two weeks ago at Carolina Dragway as a warm-up, Lindahl, 36, did better than most of the Orlando veterans. He put his '57 Chevy Bel-Air with the 521 Hemi engine in 10th place in the first qualifying session for the Super Pro Street class with a 6.965-second run at 187.93. He found an extra hundredth of a second in the nighttime pass, clocking a 6.95.

Mikael's twin brother, Magnus, said his brother and colleagues run only about 40 rounds a year, while IHRA and NHRA drivers run as many as 92 rounds in competition alone. The Lindahls' home track, Mantorp, is four hours away from their shop.

Love Tour for Great Danes -- For Lene Jensen, love means you never have to say you're Soren. He's her husband.

And because Soren and Lena Jensen love drag racing almost as much as they love each other, the couple from Copenhagen, Denmark, came to the 13th annual World Street Nationals in Orlando as part of their 25th Wedding Anniversary Tour of America with their 1963 Chevy Nova.

"That was our gift to each other," she said as they displayed the nitrous-powered big-block Chevy at the Thursday night cruise at the Race Rock Café. "I said I want to be here one time in my life." They said they learned about this event by reading industry magazines.

Lena drives the car, and Soren, who built the car, serves as crew chief. "He does all the work and I have all the fun," she said.

They put the "Mom's Toy" entry on display at the event and did not race it this weekend. "I would, " Lena said, "if somebody would loan me 10.5 tires." But they participated in the Super Gas class at the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., in September.

The Jensens have traveled as far west as Des Moines, Iowa, where a tornado whisked up the camper they had purchased when they arrived and, according to Lena, "threw it into the air and slammed it into a field." Said Soren, "It came from out of nowhere and put me on two wheels. It turned around two semis in front of me. I found put about tornadoes the hard way."

"My home track is in Malmo, Sweden," Lena Jensen, a representative for the Danish cosmetic company Gosh, said. It's not that far away for them, she said: "We just have to cross the bridge."

"We love the United States. Everybody here is so friendly," Lena said.

Said Soren, "We have so much fun. We meet so many nice people." He said if they weren't involved in drag racing, which is growing in popularity in Denmark, "We'd have to fin some other crazy thing to do. That's what life is all about."

Ready to fly -- Billy Glidden, who's driving the second entry of defending Super Pro Street event champion Chuck Samuel, was eager to get into the track Friday morning.

He jumped from the driver's seat of his passenger car as he sat in a traffic back-up on Highway 50 outside Orlando Speed World Dragway and walked into the facility, and his wife slid over behind the wheel and commandeered the car. Glidden had some trusted companions with him Friday morning. On his shoulders rode Bubba, a blue and gold macaw Glidden has had for 15 years, and Dobbie, an African gray parrot that's a six-year household member.

Glidden failed to qualify in the Outlaw 10.5 class in 2003, the last year he drove in this heads-up spectacle. He won that title in 2002. Last year he helped PGA Tour golfer and part-time driver Kenny Perry, but Perry had to withdraw his entry and tend to some personal business this weekend.

Samuel and Glidden have become friends, and Glidden said that's why he agreed to give the big-block nitrous-powered Ford Escort a spin this weekend. "I wouldn't do it with just about anybody else," he said.

In his first run down the track Friday, Glidden, of Whiteland, Indiana, qualified seventh -- seven positions higher than "boss" Samuel. However, Samuel can't complain. Last year, rain limited qualifying Friday to one session and Samuel missed it. Although he qualified 10th in 2004, he won the $10,000 winner's share of the purse.

Glidden had a 11.04/80.63 effort in Session 2, as his car lurched to the right.

Long way for bad news -- Ed Thornton came back to Florida from the Los Angeles suburb of Chino Hills, California, hoping to repeat his Super Pro Street No. 1 qualifying spot but hoping to improve his race-day performance.

Thornton, running the turbocharged '57 Chevy that Bob Reiger used to compete in, qualified with low elapsed time and top speed of the meet with a 6.626-second pass at 223.99 mph. But his car broke in the first round, and he rolled about only 300 feet.

His next pass on this quarter-mile track -- in Friday's first session -- left him in barely in the 32-car field. He was 30th with a disappointing 8.976-second showing at 95.93 mph.

Flying door -- John Stanley, of Hagerstown, Maryland, naturally wanted his '69 Camaro to be a Super Pro Street car that blows the doors off. But that's what happened to him literally in the second qualifying session. He entered the second session 32nd among the 44 drivers vying for positions on the 32-car grid.

His run was a bit of a disaster. First the car pitched the belt. Then tire shake rattled the right-side door off its hinges and the door blew off. Stanley said later that the same thing has happened several times in the previous three years. He's still unqualified, heading into Saturday's final two qualifying chances.

He said what?! -- Announcer Al Tucci might have had the public-address quote of the day when he watched Terris Hicks of Maryland oil down the right lane in a cloud of smoke. Tucci called the fountain of fumes "the rooster tail of death." Hicks was driving "The Hurricane," the turbocharged 2002 Mustang that Miamian Elias Delatorre made famous in the Outlaw 10.5 class.

Rain report -- It was another Friday, another rain delay at Orlando Speed World Dragway. But it wasn't anything like the 2004 scenario, which wiped out a qualifying session. This time the track had to be dried from an overnight shower before action started at noon. "Every year we get rain on Friday. We just cannot get away with it on Friday," track General Manager Randy Weisinger said a year ago. And the streak remained alive in 2005.

Points Of Interest For The Street Nationals Fans On Speed World Dragway's Website.

Home Page General Information, Weather and More
The Official Street Nationals Website
Hotels
Race Results
Press and News
Multimedia
Links
Sitemap Navigation