More impressive, however, may have been his number eleven qualifying position in the SCSS Quick 16 program, making Jacobsmeyer the driver of the best-qualified four-cylinder entry ever and only the second four-cylinder racer ever to earn a “Fastest Street Car” decal after George Pocuca’s Granite City, Illinois, Dodge Neon became the first to do so in 2004. (Pocuca remains the only FWD racer to qualify in the SCSS Quick 16).

Pat Trusty, a fellow Gateway DSM club member with Jacobsmeyer, made it an all DiamondStar/Mitsubishi championship dash with his ‘98 Eclipse, which uses a similar 122-cubic inch DSM powerplant. Trusty qualified second with a 13.06/105.32 just ahead of Chris White’s Ballwin, Missouri-based FWD ‘04 Neon SRT-4 which hit a 13.28 at an impressive 112.67 mph. In the final round, Trusty deep-staged his black Mitsubishi in an attempt to gain a much-needed holeshot, but redlighted by a mere seventeen thousandths of a second to hand the win to Jacobsmeyer, with his 12.34/115.

“I was trying to improve my sixty-feet times”, said Jacobsmeyer, “but I never got them to where I wanted them to be. I really thought I could run the elevens if I could improve the launch a bit. When Pat deep-staged, it threw me off just a bit and the last run might have been even quicker than the 12.10 in qualifying.”

While no four-cylinder racer has yet run quicker than Jacobsmeyer’s SCSS Track Record of 12.05 seconds, it seems the battle for that eleven-second timeslip will certainly become heated in upcoming SCSS events.

SCSS STREET CAR SHOOTOUT RESULTS -- 3/29/2005

WIN:	Tony Buhl, Lebanon, IL, 1989 306 Mustang 0.223 10.964 118.17
RU:	Jeff Bowman, Festus, MO, 1970 440 Charger 0.096 10.282 135.55

Despite atmospheric conditions not exactly conducive to stellar performances, the 2005 season kick-off for the Southside City Speed Shop Street Car Shootout Series at Gateway International Raceway quickly became a record-shattering affair with new records, new qualifiers, and a huge number of contestants. While spring weather usually brings exceptional “air” to GIR, an abysmally low barometric pressure, (29.46 Hg), held the corrected altitude to no less than 1200 feet above sea level throughout the event. Regardless, the pace of the sixteen-car field was astonishingly quick.

Although timed trials and the beginning of official qualifying included a barrage of 11-second runs, it was Jeff Bowman’s outrageous black 1970 Dodge Charger which dropped jaws with a 10.37 at 135.20 mph only forty-five minutes into the qualifying period. Two-time 2004 SCSS Event Winner Faisal Merghelani pushed his silver Team Rigged ‘n Jimmied 2002 Camaro to a 10.76/129.98 only fifteen minutes later, but when Bowman returned to hit a 10.25/135.21, the was little doubt that, for the first time in SCSS competition, the low qualifier would be a MoPar!

The Chrysler-vs.-Chevy war was interrupted by the burgundy Mustang of Tony Buhl. The father of two-time 2004 SCSS Event Winner Robert Buhl and teammate of 2004 SCS Season Champion Laurence Bass made the debut of his new 306 ‘89 Mustang memorable with a 10.53/127.25 shot to steal the second qualifying position and a berth in the Trophy Dash from Merghelani’s Chevy.

Incredibly, Bowman brought the massive Charger back for an even quicker 10.21/134.95. Merghelani made a last shot at a final-round berth, but a 10.61/130.81 effort missed bumping the Ford from the trophy dash by a mere eight hundredths of a second. In the end, the “Super 16” included five 2004 SCSS finalists and no less than nine first-time qualifiers.

Few fans gave “Old Man” Buhl’s Mustang odds to beat the big-block Dodge, but even fewer had noticed Bowman’s erratic reaction times during qualifying. Having just installed a transmission brake, Bowman was having difficulty releasing the trans brake button with consistency. When the two staged for the Missouri-vs.-Illinois, Ford-vs.-Dodge battle for the first Event Championship of the 2005 SCSS season, the new equipment got the best of Jeff Bowman; a redlight start by ninety-six thousandths of a second ended the hopes of the Chrysler fans. Meanwhile, Buhl’s new ride became just as erratic; a stumble at the hit of the throttle slowed the Ford to a 0.223 RT and a 10.96/118 which never could have stopped the Charger’s 10.28/135.55.