Roeslein made his best attempt at "hitting the 'Tree" but fell short by a mere fifteen thousandths of a second on a foul start. Incredibly, Eberhart had an 0.039 RT and, with a winning 11.103/122.85 pass against Roeslein's 11.137/120.66, left Roeslein a five-thousandths "window" to win the race. Anything slower than a 0.005 RT would not have caught Eberhart's red Nova. Eberhart was able to celebrate the win with his own personal cheering section which included what seemed like several dozen members of his family!

Despite the onslaught of summer weather, the SCSS "Super 16" was one position shy of the fifth quickest field ever and the field included no less than seven first-time qualifiers. Included among the "Fastest Street Car" decal recipients were Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Buick, and diesel machines; Justin Bondurant once again put his four-cylinder Dodge Neon into the program while the quickest six-cylinder entry of the race was St. Louisan Mehrshad Bashi's 1993 Mitsubishi 3000GT at 13.63/100.53.

One of the most impressive qualifiers was the simply amazing $180,000 2005 Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG of Dave Scott. The Edwardsville, Illinois-based Benz, which comes equipped from the factory with a twin-turbocharged, 36-valve, 366-cubic inch V12 in a rear-wheel-drive platform, uses a fully electronic five-speed automatic transmission and individual cylinder timing with two spark plugs per cylinder. The car ran repeated low 12-second runs before a 12.00/115.64 shot was backed up only five minutes later with an 11.81 at 119.60 mph on stock tires with ZERO tire spin!

Asmir Catic again qualified his "Z-Eater" 2003 Mustang to continue leading the 2005 SCSS Championship points battle with nine qualifying decals. Kolkmeyer and Huff are still tied for second place with seven qualifying berths each. Chevrolet appears to be running away with the Manufacturers' Championship with seven wins over Ford (3) and Dodge (1).

DRAGRACINGONLINE.COM SPORT TUNER SHOWDOWN RESULTS -- 6/28/2005

W: Justin Bondurant, Fenton, MO; 2004 146 Neon, 0.659, 13.213/115.20

RU: Chris White, Ballwin, MO; 2003 146 Neon, 0.299, 13.821/109.87

Justin Bondurant's blue JMB Performance Dodge Neon continued to be the class of the DRO Sport Tuner Showdown field although the tricky conditions plagued the SCSS Front-Wheel-Drive and 4-Cylinder record holder during qualifying. Eventually, the Fenton, MO, standout nearly broke his own speed marks before winning his fourth title of 2005 in a bizarre final with fellow Dodge SRT-4 competitor Chris White.

Bondurant's best qualifying ET came on a 12.14/121.57 effort but the turbocharged Dodge also clocked a 12.29 at 122.13 miles per hour which was only sixteen hundredths of a mile-per-hour from his recent 122.29 mph SCSS record and just 1.49 mph from Bill Eberhart's 123.62 mph Top Speed of the Meet! White's slick black Neon was the number two qualifier at a respectable 13.00 at a whopping 114.65 mph, making the Ballwin, MO, racer the fourth fastest driver in the new Sport Tuner Showdown program. The rest of the DRO Tuner Top Five included Mehrshad Bashi's 1993 Misubishi 3000GT, (13.63/100.53), John Gerger's Pacific, Missouri, '88 Mazda RX-7, (13.65/102.85), and Tony Gaubatz's Belleville-based '90 Honda CRX, (13.68/109.18).

The final round produced no records, however. The numbers show that Bondurant won with a 0.659 RT and a 13.21-second pass but fail to reflect the disasters occurring in both lanes. "Well, I made sure I wasn't going to redlight away the trophy," recounted Bondurant after his eighth final round appearance in twelve events, "but because I paid so much attention to waiting for the green light, I let him go a bit more than I wanted. Then, I spun the tires pretty bad and that messed up my first shift. Then, I missed third gear altogether. It was pretty ugly!" White explained that he was busy with his own problems. "I knew I left first, but then I missed second gear. He came back around me but then I saw him miss a gear, too. I tried to catch him but, at that point, it was over."