With the remains of his Sonny Leonard "Chemi" laid out as if in an operating room, Johnny Pilcher and crew worked through the night after burning a piston in the opening round of Pro Nitrous eliminations. Pilcher won that round against James Hancock, but missed the rest of the action while his father, Billy, made the 10-hour roundtrip back to their raceshop in Enterprise, AL, for new slugs. "We just never hurt those, so we don’t carry spares with us," Pilcher explained. Repairs were made in time for him to race Tommy Gray in the opening round of Sunday’s ADRL Team Challenge, but mechanical woes again forced Pilcher to withdraw after losing the match.

Pro Mod pioneer Charles Carpenter was on hand at Valdosta with his fan-favorite ’55 Chevy Shoebox and qualified fourth in the Pro Nitrous field with a 4.122-seconds pass at 172.52 mph. Carpenter won a tire-shaking battle against Terry Housley in round one, but ran into the Jenkins juggernaut in the semis. Racing for the Flowmaster Outlaws in the Team Challenge, he beat Troy Critchley and Mel Eaves, but Critchley exacted his revenge in the final go round, running 4.133 to Carpenter’s 4.210.

Opelika, AL’s James Hancock had quite a handful with his 2004 ‘Vette at Valdosta, taking the long way down the 1/8-mile in each of his three qualifying passes, but making it into the field in seventh place with a 4.153-second pass. Hancock fell to Pilcher in the first round Saturday night, but beat Mel Eaves, Chip King, and Thomas Patterson in Sunday’s team competition.

"Flyin’ Bryon" Rich got a little out of shape and kissed the wall in the final round of qualifying with "Christine," Dave Heitz’s popular ’58 Plymouth Pro Mod fashioned after its movie namesake. Rich earned a "Valdosta stripe" on the rear quarter panel and, although the damage was only cosmetic, Christine spent the rest of the weekend in her dressing room (trailer).