Jeff Plemmons from Old Fort, NC, earned a bye in the
opening round by qualifying his ’74 Nova first in
EZ Street with a 5.692-secs run. He beat Robert Kitchen
in round two, then easily handled Bob LaBrecque’s
1973 Nova in the final. Plemmons ran 5.76 at 128.05 in
the money round, while LaBrecque, competing in his career-first
EZ final, lost traction early and coasted to a 10-second
pass.
Brainerd Optimist introduced a new 5.50 index class to
its mix at the season opener and number-one qualifier Tony
Hill (near lane) earned the division’s first win
by defeating Brad Tidwell in the final round. Hill went
5.51 at 127.51 mph, while Tidwell slowed to a 6.10 at 109.21,
his worst pass of the day.
The 7.0 final pitted Robert Hindman’s Mustang against
the Duster driven by defending ORSCA 7.0 champion Dennis
Smith, who won the 7.50 race at Brainerd on Saturday night.
Smith later said he saw Hindman break out (6.91) in the
semis and thought it was going to happen again as they
ran side-by-side to the stripe, so he backed off a little
at the last moment, which allowed Hindman to take the win
with a 7.05 at 95.72 to Smith’s 7.06/91.05 combination.
Brainerd track operator Steve Longley was shaking down
his blown, hemi-powered Outlaw 10.5 Stealth. Despite posting
a guaranteed $5,000 purse for the class, only Longley and
Jack Barfield were making passes, prompting Longley to
speculate that some cars may not have been ready, while
other racers may have simply stayed home to watch the Super
Bowl. Regardless, Longley made best runs of 4.75 on Saturday
and 4.78 on Sunday. “The horsepower is fine, but
we’re running through the converter,” he explained. “We
normally go through the lights at 8,000 rpm, but it was
about 11,000 on that last pass.”
