SUPER PRO STREET

Ed Thornton led the way in Super Pro after three rounds of qualifying with a 6.626-second pass at 223.99 mph in his '57 Chevy. Wrapping up the field in 32nd place was St. Joseph, MI's Brian Robbins, who went 7.198 at 211.01 in his crowd-pleasing 1972 Hurst Olds Cutlass. Other notable qualifiers included Todd Tutterow (3rd), Marc Dantoni (7th), Chuck Samuel (10th), Pat Musi (14th), Zach Barklage (28th), and Mike Moran (31st).

The Barklage crew deserves accolades just for getting their supercharged 2004 Grand Am into the show with a 7.107-second last-chance qualifying effort after being forced to swap engines after a severe explosion at the top end of their first attempt on Saturday destroyed several valves, pistons, and the camshaft. A loud boom was heard from the starting line and many observers were confused by the many tiny pieces of material that fluttered through the air, glistening in the Florida sunshine. It turned out the concussion from the explosion blew out the car's headlights. Despite making the field, Barklage declined to show for his first-round match on raceday against Tim O'Hare, explaining the team needed to save its remaining parts for the upcoming AMS Pro Mod race at Las Vegas.

Seventeen-year-old Cody Barklage, younger brother of Zach, qualified the family's blown 1972 GTO in 22nd place, but lost in round one to the '71 Challenger of Canadian Terry Brown.

Eventual race winner Samuel eliminated David Hance, Dantoni, and number-two qualifier Ben Hopko in the early going, but not without incident. He got lucky in his quarter-final match when Hopko's 1996 Probe broke during the burnout and then Samuel's engine let go before the finish and he slowed to a nine-second run. No matter, his team made a 45-minute engine change between rounds, then made it past Steve King in the semis. "That's just part of racing and we had a good crew to change it," Samuel said. "We were lucky enough to win the round we broke and made it to the finals."

In his eighth try at the World Street Nationals, Chuck Samuel finally went home to Sycamore, IL, a winner in Super Pro Street with his 2000 Mustang powered by a 400-cubic-inch Ford motor.

On the other side of the ladder, Mike Steele and his nitrous-assisted '96 Firebird dispatched Chris Rembish in round one, then beat Charles Harris, Jim Wiens, and John Stanley to reach the final round against Samuel. Stanley later revealed his black-primered "Stealth Bomber" '69 Camaro had "three hurt cylinders" when he went to the line against Steele.

In the final, Steele left first with a stellar .408 light compared to Samuel's .471, but by half-track the Mustang had caught the Firebird and went on to post a winning 6.628 at 216.08 against Steele's 6.782 at 209.39 mph pass. "We've been here many years trying and this just tops off a good year for us," Samuel said. "We're very happy with this."