Vicky Fanning—Recently added to the Bob Bench team, the Texas two-stepper danced around a variety of difficulties. In round one, she was a bit late against Keith Jackson. She appeared to be catching him until the motor went south at 800 feet, burning four pistons in the process. She left on time in her round two race against Wyatt, but found herself bouncing off the left guard rail about 150 feet off the line. The damage appeared to be minimal, and Bench, Fanning and company pronounced their first-ever World Series appearance a qualified success.

Keith Jackson—The Action Man put in a solid weekend of match race work. 5.80’s don’t rate a big headline, but in the match race world they represent a solid A-to-B performance. Plus, Jackson has put together some good efforts at NHRA national events in recent weeks. Things are finally looking up for the Colorado vet, who has been through the wars, over the years.

Pedregon and Wilkerson—The headline duo didn’t punch that World Series final round ticket, but they did face off in the second round. Tony P improved to a 5.24 effort, which was enough to stop Wilkerson’s 5.44. No matter to the fans, who seemed glad to see two current stars, and equally glad to buy lots of T-shirts from the NHRA heavyweights.

NOSTALGIA FUNNY CAR

If any one group overachieved at the 51st World Series, it was the nostalgia flopper group. That may have been because nobody knew just what to expect prior to the event. But at any rate, the group as a whole delivered the goods at their first World Series show. Using a wide variety of equipment, the nostalgia guys showed up on time, did good burnouts, ran some decent numbers and did so with a reasonable amount of breakage. It’s a sizable task to get a movement off the ground, but this group took a definite step in the right direction at this year’s World Series. The fans loved the action, and the chance to see old-school floppers on the track and in the pits. Car by car, and blow by blow, here’s what happened.

Steve Hill, Taylorsville, Illinois—The day’s best numbers, and best blow up went to Hill. He recently took his ‘66 Vette roadster out of storage and back into action. Using a 496-inch Arias, 14:71 blower and a powerglide, he ran 7.04 for low e.t. of the day. But he suffered a blower explosion in the final round, making his weekend an artistic success, but an expensive one.