Words and photos by Ian Tocher
10/19/05

oining Jenkins in the prestigious winner’s circle were “Turbo Tim” Lynch in Outlaw 10.5, John Schroeder in Heavy Street, and Wade Hopkins in the Drag Radial class.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in Super Pro was Annette Summer breaking through with a 6.404-seconds pass at 220.21 mph in her twin-turbocharged ’63 Corvette to secure the number-one spot after 62 teams made four qualifying passes each. Jenkins placed his nitrous-assisted 1968 Camaro second on the list at 6.49 second, followed by John Gullett’s 2001 turbo Mustang.

Vern Summer, crew chief for his wife, Annette, said they ran a new combination at Orlando with a 528 c.i. engine boosted by a pair of Innovative Turbo 101 mm turbos.

“No matter what happens now, I feel like we’ve already won,” said Summer, who, along with husband/crew chief Vern, has battled launch and tire shake problems with the car for the last couple of years. “This feels like a huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders.” After taking out Jim Wiens in round one on raceday, Summer ran a career-best speed of 227.84 mph in outrunning Mike Moran in the second round, but fell to Billy Glidden in the next round when the shift light failed in her car.

“I noticed during the burnout it didn’t work because I always make it flicker so I know I’m heating up the tires the same way each time,” she explained. “Then, during the run I had to shift by the seat of my pants and I overevved by 200 rpm and it went into really bad tire shake that I just couldn’t drive through. When we checked it out later we found out the bulb had burned out in the shift light. It’s always the little things that get you, but to lose to a 7.01, that just makes me sick.”

Regardless, Summer’s qualifying time stood up as low E.T. of the meet, so she was rewarded with a $1,000 check and a coveted World Street Nats trophy. “At least I don’t go home empty handed,” she laughed.

Glidden, who qualified ninth as teammate to defending class champ Chuck Samuel in a turbocharged 2005 Escort, lost in the semis to number-five qualifier Gillig, who previously went through Andy Rankin, Tim Baptista, and Tim O’Hare to reach the final. On the other side of the ladder, Jenkins defeated Scott Palmer in round one, made a solo pass when Bill Meadows couldn’t answer the call, beat Brian Robbins, and got past a redlighting Gullett in the semis.