Marshfield, MD's Tim Slavens qualified his fine, flamed '66 Chevelle 19th in the Heavy Street field. He eliminated John Harrison in round one, but fell to Bill Lutz in the next stanza.

Troy Blake hangs 'em high on his way to qualifying 28th, but the West Palm Beach, FL-based racer lost in the first pairing of the first round to Robbie Hudlow and his 2002 Camaro.

Orlando's own Mark Schieb missed the cut in Heavy Street, going 8.497 to wind up 38th of 64 entries.

DRAG RADIAL

Jesse Lambert (near lane) had Dennis Bailey covered at the start of their quarter-final duel, but when Lambert's '86 Mustang returned to earth, it bounced and started fishtailing wildly across both lanes as Bailey got safely past and advanced. It looked like Lambert was going to save the ride at one time, but the car spun out just past the finish line and hit the left guardrail with both ends. Lambert later said he "knew it would take a good run to stay with him (Bailey)," and that's why he stayed in the throttle so long. "It's not that bad," he concluded. "We can just put some sheet metal on it."

Rick Head definitely made the long, long tow from Simi Valley, CA, worthwhile by qualifying on top of the Drag Radial field with an impressive 7.663-second pass at 186.56 mph, then advancing to win the final round over Dennis Bailey. Head's number-one effort was the only pass in the 7.60s all weekend, and he and Bailey were the only drivers to run in the sevens at all on raceday. It took a stout 8.668 to round out the 32-car field, with Chris Tedeschi holding that spot after 70 cars made qualifying attempts.

After taking out Tedeschi in the opener, Head had an up-in-smoke single in round two, then beat John Hewlett in the quarter finals, and Jim Filipowski was his victim in the semis. On the other side, Bailey, who qualified second at 7.704, had a single in the opener after Armando Navarro's 1980 Camaro broke. Bailey got another gift in round two when Alex Vrettos '95 Cobra also broke, and then Jesse Lambert crashed in the third round against him. Even in the semis Bailey's opponent had trouble, as Michael Dees shut down early while Bailey made his best pass of the day, a 7.88 at more than 187 mph.