SUNDAY ELIMINATIONS

Round one action pitted Donnie “the miracle man” Krusinski (a name given to him because of his escape from a horrific fire two months ago at this very track) vs. Bill Meadows from Team North with his 814” John Kaase-powered Camaro. Krusinski shook the tires, handing the easy win to Meadows.

Pate used a quicker reaction time and e.t. to send home the North’s Jim Teachman in his '57 Chevy. Tony Gentile's near perfect .007 reaction time and 4.41 e.t. handily beat a shut off 8.71 of Darren Wilkins in his Pontiac Grand Am. The South’s “Superman" Ronnie Gardner used a 4.37 to dust off Kevin McCurdy’s 4.62. Randy Jewell from the North got the single when a float stuck on Rick “Spiderman” Moore’s Firebird and a fireball erupted when he went to fire the engine. The car was able to be fired following the race and all is well.

The first close call for the North came when Dantoni’s car got out of the groove during the run and, despite being in the grass at the end of the track, he came away with a 4.39 to 4.46 victory over Charles Harris from the South. After the round Dantoni said, “It was a real hairy ride but when the money’s on the line you have to get to the other end the best you can."

As was expected, Tutterow (left) dispatched Hank Hill (who was racing for team North this weekend) with another 4.19 pass to a shut-off pass by Hill.

The big moment of round one came however when the South’s William Brown lined up to race Musi with Brown having the better light and beating a tire shaking Musi to the line with a 4.48 to Musi’s slower 4.57. The crowd erupted and William Brown is now referred to as the “Giant Killer.”

Miss Big Dog

Anyone who’s ever heard of Pat Musi understands he’s not in the business of losing, so it was nice to hear that when asked what Musi’s reaction was at the end of the track, William Brown said that Musi congratulated him and said, “You’ve been trying to beat me all year and you finally did. I just wish you didn’t pick now to do it.”

Round 2 saw William “The Giant Killer” Brown take out a red lighting Bill Meadows and Tony Gentile squeaking by a quicker reacting Randy Jewell. Jewell brought a proverbial knife to a gunfight as the Pro Car-sponsored entry has a 615-inch motor with a single stage of nitrous weighing in at 2550 lbs. He should be called “Mr. Consistency” as the car reeled off seven runs in the mid-4.40’s.

In a rematch of least year’s semi finals Ronnie Gardner’s car shut off EXACTLY as it did the year before just as he was staging, giving Dantoni the easy win. Apparently this is the third time this same thing has happened when Gardner was racing Dantoni, and Ronnie was looking to search Dantoni’s trailer for the voodoo doll of his Superman Corvette.

It was South vs. South in the last pair as Pate, knowin he was outgunned, took a shot at the tree and turned on the big red bulb giving the race to Tutterow who still would have won with a 4.22 running much quicker then Pate's 4.35.