Billy Glidden came
here to win. In testing during the week leading up to
the race he had ripped off a super 7.05 blast from his nitrous equipped '90 Ford
Mustang. He then
ADVERTISEMENT
|
|
proceeded to qualify Number 1 with a fine 7.092/194.67. Not
too shabby for a 10.5 tire car. He ran 7.141/184.80 on a Round One bye
run. Stepped it up a bit for the second round with a 7.11/194.13. A
7.139/193.05 was good enough to put him into the semis against Chuck Ulsch who
whipped him soundly with his best ever 7.057-197.84 blast from his Maryland based
'69 Camaro. Glidden was right there with a close 7.086/189.71. Glidden
was off the line first .063 to Chuck's .069. So it was tight at the stripe. This
set up the final for the King of the Street title with Ulsch's teammate Richard
Sexton, also from Maryland. He had been nursing a wounded ignition all
day and was very lucky to have made it this far. Like the other finalists
they split the purse.
Joe Schroeder brought his wild Jim-Oddy-prepped '69 Camaro to Bradenton from
Frankford, DE. He ran a 7.71/181.81 to qualify fourth for Heavy Street. He
broke in the second round.
Tony Nesbitt qualified his '02 Corvette on the pole for Heavy Street at the U.S.
Street Nationals with a motor-destroying 7.472/180.10 run on Friday night. The
crew thrashed till 3 AM to fix the engine. They hurt the motor again
on Saturday, repaired the damage again and made it all the way to the finals
on Sunday. He ran 7.40's all day on Sunday to wind up facing a tough
Robbie Hudlow who ran 7.488/185.37 in the semis. It, like all the other
finals, was going to be a close match.