|
David Bryant qualified his front-motored nine-second digger in the
number eight spot and made it to the semis when his first round opponent
broke.
Then there was the DRO-backed, Goodguys-legal, A/FD entered by the
team of Dave Koehler and yours truly. The Flatland Surfers team didn't
make the Quick 8 but were first alternate and the dragster's impressive
burnouts and guardrail-to-guardrail passes kept the crowd on their feet
on every pass.
THE RACE
On race day there were four open wheel cars and four door cars qualified
for the Quick 8 with the Koehler/Burk dragster coming in to replace
Dennis Maudsley's Crazy Critter fuel altered because of the damage it
sustained during qualifying.
The best race of the quick eight had to be the first round battle between
the eventual winner Scott Lindle and alternate Dave Koehler's blown
digger. Lindle left first but the dragster easily made up the handicap,
caught and passed the 'slammer -- and then the fun started. The rail
spun the tires hard, headed toward the guardrail. and Koehler stepped
off of the throttle. Lindle came around the rail then Koehler hit the
pedal again, caught the 'slammer again and then spun the tires for a
final time. Lindle took the stripe with an 8.406/159.12 lap to Koehler's
8.413/121.72.
Lindle was the only door car to make it to the second round as low
qualifier Don Speer, number two qualifier David Jamison, and David Bryant
all went on to the semi-finals. In the semis Lindle faced Jamison's
seven-second rail. Jamison, perhaps not being used to the Pro tree,
red-lighted while Lindle had a reaction time that was on the other end
of the scale. His reaction time was a world record 2.710 seconds. That's
not a misprint, folks, that is his reaction time.
In the other match up, Don Speer had a two-second edge on Bryant so
he was able to cut a leisurely .930 light and still cover Bryant's 9.478
with a 7.57.
The final round was equally bizarre as once again the favorite redlighted.
Speer bulbed, giving the win to Lindle.
|
