Elliot Thompson (center) is flanked (l-r) by brothers Eric and Evan, his uncle Marty, and father Ed, who owns a large pharmaceutical company near Philadelphia.

Thompson, who turned 20 in August, was competing in only his third career heads-up race. Although he was wearing gloves with his driver's suit tucked into their cuffs, he still suffered minor burns to both wrists which exactly replicated the elastic cuffs on his sleeves. It appeared the heat of the fire—not the flames themselves—caused the burns. Trackside medical workers treated and bandaged his wrists immediately after the blaze, but Thompson also visited a local hospital afterwards "just to make sure there were no hidden injuries," his father explained.

Back on the track, eventual Heavy Street finalists Rob Golobo and Charlie Micallef both enjoyed relatively easy first-round victories over Wade Gullett and Wayne Smozanek, respectively. Golobo then disposed of Sam Gottier, while Micallef had to come from behind off the tree to win over Jeff Castaldo. In round three, Golobo left with a .424 light, which made the difference as his 7.59 bested the 7.50 of number-two qualifier John Schroeder. Golobo later said that was the turning point of the race for him, as the holeshot win restored confidence to his team after they struggled with their tune-up at Orlando. Meanwhile, Micallef again had to overcome a big holeshot to win over Robbie Hudlow.

Dan Dye, from Lakeville, MN, fragged the blower on his 1971 Cuda during testing at Stanton, MI, just days before the Orlando race, so he brought the car to Mike Janis in Buffalo, NY, where he says Janis turned it around in just three days. Dye also entered the World Street Nationals with a new Bruno/Lenco automatic transmission in the car for the first time and promptly qualified ninth and made it all the way to the semi finals.

In the semis, Golobo won a close race against Bill Lutz in a 1969 Camaro, and Micallef beat Dan Dye when Dye's Hemi-equipped Cuda lost traction less than 60 feet off the starting line. "We put a little more power in it because we thought the guy (Micallef) was gonna' step it up and run a number in that round," Dye said. "We were stepping on it a little harder all day long. I'm happy that we did well and didn't hurt anything, but I'm a little disappointed, too, because I think we should've won this thing. We have the car to do it and we have the tune-up to do it, but we just got too aggressive, too fast."

In the final round, Golobo won going away, as he took a whopping .148 advantage off the start, then ran 7.609 secs at 184.80 mph to Micallef's 7.711/178.35 combo. Elliot's 7.470 that he ran straight off the trailer in the first qualifying round put him on top of 64 entries in Heavy Street and held up for low e.t. of the meet honors.

After dropping out with engine trouble in the semis last year, Whitelake, MI's Rob Golobo went one round farther in 2004 and took the Heavy Street win over Charlie Boy Micallef.