Mel Eaves had the only nitro burner on the grounds at Valdosta, running 10 percent in the tank before bumping it up to 15 for his final qualifying attempt. Regardless, he missed the eight-car cut in Pro Extreme, finishing 15th of 24 entries. "This is the best track I’ve run on in five years," Eaves stated, "but it was shaking the tires so we had to throw more power at it." Eaves said he’s used to racing in Super Chevy Nitro Coupe shows, where the emphasis is more on making consistent passes, "so it requires a change in mindset to really go after it like this."

Tommy Gray got the last-minute call to drive Roy Hill’s 1966 Mustang at Valdosta and his first qualifying pass was a memorable one. In his first experience with carbon-fiber brakes, Gray’s parachutes didn’t open and he heated up the brakes "to the point they’d lock up as soon as I touched them." Despite getting up on two wheels "a couple of times," Gray managed to get the car slowed down, but not enough to avoid a trip into the top-end sandpit. With relatively minor cosmetic damage to the car’s nose, Gray missed the second round, but posted a 4.058 in the final qualifying session to finish 10th.

In just his third outing in a new Alan Pittman-built ’63 Corvette after crashing his previous car at Holt, FL, last October, Keith Baker made it all the way to the Pro Nitrous final at Dragpalooza. After qualifying third at 4.110 seconds, Baker made it past Pat Doherty and Johnny Pilcher (a no show due to parts breakage) to reach the final round against Shannon Jenkins. Baker left first with a stellar .016 reaction and made his best pass of the weekend with a 4.087 at 179.42 mph, but still fell short of Jenkins, who established both ends of the nitrous records with his 4.007/184.42 combination. "I did everything I could, but it just wasn’t enough," the Dothan, AL-based racer said. "It still has some left in it, but we didn’t want to kill it and have to work all night to make the show tomorrow."

The sleeper of the weekend had to be Todd Bauknecht, who showed up as an unknown from Cleveland, TN, and left as a genuine Pro Mod hitter. In his first full race since buying the Pittman-built ‘Vette from David Elsberry about three months ago, the former Top Alcohol Dragster outlaw qualified third in the tough Pro Extreme field with a 3.987-second pass. "To be honest, on the way down here I didn’t even expect to make the show," Bauknecht said, but after he and crew members Jack Herron and Shane Griffith put together a 3.98 lap in testing Friday night (with a little tuning advice from Jimmy Rector), they knew they had a shot. In eliminations, Bauknecht trailered Mike Neal, Sr. in Don Stroud’s ’53 Studebaker, but fell in round two to Joshua Hernandez. In Sunday’s Team Challenge against the AMS All-Stars, he lost to Perry Herring, but came back to beat Troy Critchley, then enjoy a bye in the final pass. Not bad for a rookie.