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Defending March Meet A/Fuel Dragster champion Jim Paul successfully
backed up the win, doing it in a manner similar to Harris: He set low
e.t. in the final. Paul spotted final-round foe Sean Bellemeur the early
lead but mopped him up when Bellemeur's mount got out of shape and crossed
the center line and into Paul's lane. Paul carded a stout 6.59/205.76.
Bellemeur got top speed credit when he scored a semifinal 6.84/206.09
win over Bill Genco.
Bill Wayne defeated maybe the most famous Junior Fuel pilot of them
all in the final when his 7.33/180.36 ousted Don Enriquez's 7.42/182.32.
Interestingly enough, Enriquez, a Hall of Famer with partner Gene Adams,
ousted Mendy Fry, one of the sport's up and coming Alcohol Dragster
pilots in the late 1980s, early '90s, in the semifinals, 7.41 to 7.53.
Low E.T. went to Mike Chrisman who ran a first-round 7.30/177.134 to
beat Bud Hammer.
In Pro Supercharged, it was Steve Wood(s) City. Steve Wood (no 'S')
pushed his '53 Studebaker to a final-round 7.93/156.93 to beat Howard
Anderson's '38 Chevy and a shut-off 9.80. Low e.t. and top speed went
to back-to-back NHRA Winternationals Competition Eliminator champ Steve
Woods at a 6.80/200.57 in a '48 Austin, or a reasonable facsimile thereof.
The remaining eliminators went thisaway: Sean Renteria (A/Gas), DeWayne
Sanders (B/Gas), Monty Fitzgerald (C/Gas), Bob Lander (Nostalgia II),
Dave Gruzen (Nostalgia III which was the Sportsman class that earned
the MBNA bonus), Al Silva (Hot Rod), and Alan Ross (Street Machine).
NOTES: Maybe you knew it, but I didn't.
Dale Pulde, the three-time IHRA Funny Car World Champion and 1981 Bakersfield
Funny Car Champ was racing in Top Fuel!!! Yep, first time (or damn close)
to his first ride in a blown fuel dragster, and that's leaving aside
the Junior Fueler he drove when he was 17. He lost in round two. ...
In 1988, the last non-nostalgia Top Fuel show was won by Butch Blair's
"Blair's Fugowie." He beat Bob Reehl in the Posey & Murdoch dragster
in the final and set low e.t. at a 5.40. He lost in round one. ... Didja
know that Jim Murphy in Nostalgia Top Fuel was the first Funny Car driver
over 230-mph. He did it at the 1972 NHRA Supernationals at Ontario in
his "Holy Smokes" Barracuda. ... Harris' crew chief Scott Mason (I'm
reasonably sure) was the shot caller on Garth Widdison's five-second
Mason-Perry-Widdison/"Utah Charger" fueler of the late 1970s.
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