DOUBLE DUTY

After breaking the wheelie bars on his nitrous-assisted '63 Corvette at the IHRA season opener in San Antonio, TX, and needing more testing time with the supercharged car added to his Paul Trussell-owned team this season, Pro Mod veteran Ed Hoover sat out the NHRA Pro Mod show a week later in Gainesville.

"I just told NHRA that I couldn't be competitive and they'd be better off giving my parking space to someone else," Hoover said between qualifying rounds at Rockingham. "I'll be back there, though, as soon as I get everything sorted out."

Part of that sorting out included entering the blown car (above) in Top Sportsman at the Rock, while the trusty nitrous entry (below) carried the Pro Mod load. Both cars qualified, with Hoover grabbing the top spot in Top Sportsman with a 6.364 at 216.41, the quickest elapsed time ever recorded in the class, and finishing 12th in Pro Mod with a 6.272 at 221.13 mph. The blown car was later withdrawn from Top Sportsman, which allowed Frank Teague to move into the field from the 17th slot.

Hoover also mentioned Tommy Mauney is building him another new car that will run nitrous and be able to accommodate the larger 36-inch Top Fuel slicks like Shannon Jenkins currently uses. He added that he loves driving the blower car, though. "It's made drag racing a lot more fun for me again. There's so much to learn with it; the two cars are completely different, but that's good."

PRO STOCK

Number-one qualifier Pete Berner's time was just .006 off the IHRA record set by Gene Wilson in 2001 at Budd's Creek, MD.

Pete Berner served notice he's ready to race this year when he laid down a 6.538 pass at 211.53 mph during the opening round of qualifying.

The Pro Stock guys had the toughest time on Saturday night, as track conditions just weren't conducive to making fast, full-track passes. Only Jerry Haas made a full pass, but it was well off the 6.634 he needed to bump Elijah Morton out of the 16-car field.

Jerry Haas made his debut in Rockingham as driver for Billy Dingman's new IHRA Pro Stock team, with engines from Lennart Bergqvist at Autoshop in Orlando, FL. Dingman said he plans to hit all the remaining U.S.-based events on the schedule.

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