or the Sportsman racers at the Rocket City Nationals, the big deal of the day at eighth-mile Huntsville Dragway on the Fourth of July Weekend wasn’t the $101,000-to-win Rocket City Nationals Top Fuel show-- it was the grade points, $2500 to win in both Stock and Super Stock and most importantly the chance to win a coveted “Wally.”  For the racers in the bracket 6.0/7.0 and the other unique Sportsman classes at Huntsville, the chance to win a “Wally” was literally a once in a lifetime affair and the emotion they showed in the winner’s circle proved it. One racer e-mailed the magazine to say that he literally slept with his “Wally” in the bed after winning it.

The Rocket City Nationals enjoyed the status of being an NHRA National Open event, and this meant NHRA classes, or in this case, some of them were contested.  Unfortunately, the fields were small with just six cars competing in Super Stock and just five competitors in Stock. Super Stock Eliminator was won by Todd Ewing’s Huntsville Engine Performance SS/CM Olds Achieva when he took down Ken Vaughn in the finals. Working off a 5.94 dial under, Ewing cranked a 5.966/110.54 to Vaughn’s breaking out lap of 6.098/112.53 on a 6.12 dial.

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The Stock final produced a slaughtering of the dial under as both drivers working off identical 7.86 dials went way under.  “Painter” Stevenson’s G/SA Nova out powered Ed Bendall’s entry via a 7.277/92.48 to 7.547/89.61 count.

The 6.0 “heads-up breakout class was won by Eric Frost in a 6.043/112.73 to 6.058/112.02 bout.  The 7.0 class (Pro Tree) for cars on a 7-second index) went to Ricky Millard when his final-round 7.023/98.10 clipped Jerry Bryant’s 7.023/98.99, and the second winner with the first name of “Todd”, this case Todd Berry of Tuscumbia, Al., cropped up in the Foot Brake bracket. Russ Almond’s SS/IA ’66 Nova, which won Saturday’s Foot Brake bracket, came in second to Berry when his 6.917 (6.90 dial-in) failed to track down the winner’s 7.664 (7.66 dial-in).