It was an ugly night for St Louis SRT Club (http://www.stlsrt.com) member Bondurant, whose event started out poorly and only got worse. Switching from his 11-second drag radials to a set of 18-inch wheels and street tires to "see what would happen," huge amounts of tire spin and wheel hop kept the holder of the SCSS 4-Cylinder and Front-Wheel-Drive Records mired in the 13-second zone at 116 mph. So slow was the car's best (12.91/116.87), that Bondurant failed to crack the 12.53-second "bump spot" for the Super 16 field (for which he had qualified six times in 2005), costing him a chance to move into a tie for third place in the 2005 SCSS Season Championship. Ironically, his 12.91 effort came on one of the few nights in which that number was good enough for the number one spot in the DRO Sport Tuner Showdown, putting him in the final round again.

Initially, Bondurant was to face Ross Randall's slick new black 4G63-powered Mitsubishi Evolution, which had run as quick as 13.68 at 99.27 mph. However, a classification error caused the qualifying computer to overlook the 13.26/103.03 pass of Jeremy Treiber's bright yellow 35GTE-powered Toyota MR2 which, due to its relatively rare 4-cylinder/Rear-Wheel-Drive configuration, is one of the only combinations of that type allowed in the STSS division. Once the error was found, however, Treiber reported for the final round and Randall, who displayed exceptional sportsmanship when the error was announced, headed back for more timed trials. Randall's Evo VIII had barely out-qualified John Grerger's '88 Mazda RX7 (13.70/101.78) and original SCSS FWD superstar George Pocuca's new bone-stock Neon SRT-4 (13.76/101.16).

Bondurant was genuinely worried about his chances in the trophy match, expecting his traction problems to continue. When Treiber pushed the 'Tree to a redlight by sixty-seven thousandths of a second, however, Bondurant couldn't believe his good fortune. As Treiber shut down in disgust to a 14.95 at only 75 mph, Bondurant decided to avoid imminent drivetrain destruction and coasted to the win in 19.73 seconds at 66 mph.

"Well, THAT was the slowest final round ever!" exclaimed Bondurant in the winner's circle. "It was wheel-hopping so bad that I was sure I'd break a halfshaft if I had to really stay on the throttle. When I saw his redlight, I realized I'd better just idle down there so I could actually drive it home! I was on and off the throttle multiple times on every run just trying to get it to hook up. The only good thing that came out of the experiment with these tires was the 116-mph speeds, which were without nitrous. I never could get to the button because I was trying to get the car to the finish line in one piece!"

CARL'S 4WD SUPER TRUCK SHOWDOWN RESULTS -- 7/5/2005

W: Mike Clyde, Collinsville, IL; 1996 350 S-10, 0.052. 14.229/95.49

RU: Brad Swarz, Fairview Heights, IL; 1992 454 C1500, 0.202, 14.645/93.62

With the sale of Randy Christy's dominant Chevy S-10, the finalist positions in the Carl's 4WD & Performance Super Truck Showdown were up for grabs in the eighth event of the new series. Mike Clyde, whose green metal flake-painted '96 S-10 had run deep into the 13-second zone at previous '05 events, led early qualifying with a 13.85/96.34 pass only to be nipped late in the official qualifying period by Bryan Moseley's Granite City, Illinois-based black 2003 Ford Lightning which hit a 13.77/100.08.

When the finalists were called in the front of the grandstands, however, Moseley never appeared. Clyde waited until first alternate Brad Swarz could return with his white 454SS-optioned 1992 C1500, which had run a best of 14.50/93.89. Although the match looked to heavily favor Clyde, the little S-10 had been steadily slowing from its 13-second pace during qualifying. In the final, Clyde could only muster a 14.22 at 95 mph but a solid holeshot kept him in front of Swarz's full-sized Chevy for his first CSTS victory.