Timed trials were led by May 24th SCSS runner-up Tony Huff's 454-cubic inch '67 Camaro (11.27/120.93), Todd Weishaupt's Illinois '67 396 Chevelle (11.17/117.63), and 2004 SCSS event winner George Wahby's wild 350 Chevy-powered '71 Ford Pinto (a career-best 11.00/120.57). Just prior to the start of the official qualifying period, however, first-time SCSS entrant Greg Elliott launched his nondescript green '69 Nova to an amazing 10.25 at 133.22 mph to overwhelm the rest of the field.

Elliott's 383-cubic inch small block-powered beast made only one other run only thirty minutes later, an official 10.32 at 133.04 mph, and waited in the pits while the rest of the field waged all-out war to gain a spot in the incredibly quick field. Wahby's diminutive Pinto broke into the ten-second zone with a best-ever 10.88/120.67 and later returned with another 11.00/120.57. David Starns' familiar silver '91 355 Mustang took over the third slot with an 11.23/120.47 effort and Weishaupt's Chevelle hit 11.41/115, but all were light years from Elliott's almost stock-appearing Nova.

Meanwhile, Kolkmeyer had opened with an 11.65/121.49 and later hit an 11.32/121.70 but found himself in the fifth position when qualifying ended. Kolkmeyer made yet another timed trial after the conclusion of qualifying, clocking a great 11.24/121.31 (one of his quickest runs ever) and headed back to the pits. As Kolkmeyer later recalled, "That's when I heard the announcer calling me to the staging lanes."

As Elliott waited in front of the main grandstands for an opponent to appear, attrition was once again becoming apparent. Wahby, concerned about handling difficulties experienced on his runs, had left the property. Starns' Mustang was missing in action after its first and only attempt. Huff's Camaro ran into several problems, including a broken header collector. For the second time in three weeks, Kolkmeyer found himself in the championship round!

Kolkmeyer later recounted, "I pulled in front of the grandstands and a friend said to me, 'Dude, you can't win. You may as well just stage, lay on the horn, launch on the first yellow light, and just try to scare the hell out of him!' I mean, the guy was running 10.30s!" However, when Kolkmeyer left the starting line in the final round, he was playing for keeps. A brilliant 0.037 Reaction Time gave the Camaro pilot a quarter-second holeshot. Even more incredible, however, was the fact that Elliott's Nova stumbled badly off the line and never recovered. "I couldn't see him anywhere down there," said Kolkmeyer while accepting his second trophy in fourteen days. "You have to remember that this is my only car. It's my daily driver. So, when I didn't see him, I wasn't going to risk hurting the car. I just got off the throttle and coasted across the finish line. It was crazy!"

For the second consecutive event, the sixteen qualifiers included big blocks, small blocks, Fords, Chevys, Pontiacs, Chryslers, and both four-cylinder and six-cylinder entries. Jason Ebenrick's silver turbocharged Toyota Supra from Festus, MO, was the quickest of the six-cylinders with a great 11.78/121.87 pass which qualified tenth, followed by the turbo Buick Regal V6s of Mark Brokaw (12.20/112.36) and Scott Keller (12.40/107).

"Z-Eater" Asmir Catic qualified for the sixth time in eight completed events, keeping the St. Louis Mustang racer atop the 2005 SCSS Season Championship race with Huff and Kolkmeyer tied for second place with five qualifying efforts each. Chevrolet has taken the lead in the Manufacturers' Championship standings with four wins, followed by Ford with three wins and Dodge with one win.

DragRacingOnline.com SPORT TUNER SHOWDOWN RESULTS -- 5/31/2005

WINNER: Patrick Jacobsmeyer, St. Louis, MO, 1991 122 Talon, 0.053, 12.113, 116.67 mph

RUNNER-UP: Justin Bondurant, Fenton, MO, 2004 146 Neon, 0.153, 12.030, 118.18 mph

While the SCSS program was wild, the DRO Sport Tuner Showdown was easily the most entertaining battle seen in the 2005 season. With the $50 cash bonus from DragRacingOnline.com editor Jeff Burk still available for the first driver to record an 11-second elapsed time during a qualifying or final round pass, the war again came down to the two most prolific competitors in the new class, Patrick Jacobsmeyer (shown) and Justin Bondurant.

Despite a tremendous field of Sport Tuner racers in which the top five qualifiers were under 12.78 seconds (any vehicles other than Rear-Wheel-Drive 6-cylinder and RWD 8-cylinder cars are permitted) the qualifying war between Jacobsmeyer's Talon and Bondurant's Neon was one of the most intense imaginable. Shortly after official runs commenced, Jacobsmeyer's white All-Wheel-Drive Eagle threw down the gauntlet with a 12.100 at 115.59 mph. Seventeen minutes later, Bondurant's blue FWD Dodge proved it would be a race with a 12.19/115.38. Twenty-two minutes later, Jacobsmeyer hit a 12.081/115.22. Twenty-four minutes after that, Bondurant ran 12.099 at 117.70 mph...and made another pass in less than a half-hour to record a 12.084 at 117.74!

Although the two were only three thousandths of a second apart in qualifying, Jacobsmeyer clinched the sixteenth spot in the second-quickest SCSS field ever with his 12.081 effort while Bondurant failed to earn a decal with his 12.084 best! Amazingly, machines like Kyle Belobrajdic's black '96 Eagle Talon (12.28/108.42), Brian Orsborn's red '04 Neon SRT-4 (12.65/117.13), and Bill Hensley's silver '03 Mistubishi Evo (12.78/108.06), were never even contenders for a final-round berth.