Saturday report from Seattle

Robert Wilson

(photos courtesy Bill Jeffery and Paul Grant)

After a very long first day of the annual pilgrimage to the nitro mecca Pacific Raceways - and we've got to say that
it's testing our religious beliefs in the CH3NO2 deity this weekend - it's time to get serious and smack down the
track today. Get down and dirty and keep those tires hooked and booking instead of spinning and smoking.

But where's all the missing race cars? Where are the over-full fields of yore? The hard-fought battles to claw a way
into the field and celebrate just qualifying? The fact is that only THREE, yes three cars will fail to advance to
eliminations this weekend. Three non-qualifiers at a national event? Almost unheard of.

One of the embarassed three was last night's crash victim, comp racer Howie Stevens, who was DQ'd on his first
qualifying attempt, then crashed on his second to miss the field. With 17 nitro Funny Cars on hand, one of them
is going to draw the shortest straw and miss the show, while Pro Stock has one competitor facing the same fate.

The other pro and pro-sportsman (do they even use that term anymore?) fields are shorthanded, with only 15 Top
Fuel cars, 13 Top Alcohol Funny Cars and just 12 Top Alcohol Dragsters. Competition eliminator had only 25 cars
"fighting" for 32 spots before Stevens eliminated himself. And the other categories are "all-run" just like in
the primary school track meets where everyone wins a participation medal. Maybe that's a little harsh, but if
you don't have to work to get in the show, where's the accomplishment?

This morning dawned cloudy and decidedly cooler, but with a forecast of improving weather throughout the day,
although with a high temp about 10 degrees (F) cooler than yesterday. A welcome change to be sure for racers,
crews and spectators alike. But as I start this report just after 9:00 am, the clouds are almost all gone and
the thermometer is climbing quickly.

The first race cars are filling the staging lanes with Super Street leading off and Comp eliminator running their
final qualifying session at 11:00 am to signal the start of the serious racing. Then the big boys come out to play,
starting with Pro Stock at noon and continuing with the first session of the day for the fuel cars at 12:30 pm.

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3:00 PM UPDATE:

Comp eliminator had a safe and successful final qualifying session with low qualifier Rob Harrison improving yet
again, carding a 7.645 at over 175 mph to solidify his hold on the top spot going into this afternoon's first
round of eliminations. Fellow BC'er, Langley's Bob Marshall picked up another few thousandths in his very
consistent car (ran 7.11, 7.10 and 7.10 in qualifying) to a best of 7.10 at 191+ mph to remain stuck in the "lucky"
#13 spot.

Final Comp qualifying

1 63 J/A Rob Harrison, N. Vancouver BC, '05 Escort 7.645 8.33 -0.685
2 7230 A/SMA Randy Jones, Monarch Beach CA, '05 Cavalier 7.864 8.52 -0.656
3 73 G/SMA Justin Lamb, Henderson NV, '10 Cobalt 8.688 9.33 -0.642
4 211 F/EA Glen Treadwell, Sorrento FL, '23-T Ford 7.891 8.53 -0.639
5 6054 C/A Brandon Huhtala, Puyallup WA, '97 Cutlass 7.354 7.97 -0.616
6 6618 B/AA Dale Giroux, Canyon Creek AB, '04 Cavalier 7.010 7.62 -0.610
7 7 D/SMA Doug Lambeck, Irvine CA, '06 Pontiac 8.374 8.97 -0.596
8 77 A/AA Alan Ellis, Mapleton UT, '23-T Ford 6.571 7.15 -0.579
9 76 B/ND Dean Carter, Glendale AZ, Uyehara-Chevy 6.970 7.53 -0.560
10 67 F/A Aaron Strong, Milton WA, '05 Cavalier 8.089 8.62 -0.531
11 6660 H/SM Adam Bowdish, Oregon City OR, '89 Trans Am 9.014 9.54 -0.526
12 6033 C/D Pat Byron, Hoquiam WA, Parker-Chevy 6.890 7.41 -0.520
13 670 AA/AT Mark Wolfe, Marysville WA, '96 Thunderbird 6.521 7.04 -0.519
14 6944 B/AA Bob Marshall, Langley BC, '09 GXP 7.102 7.62 -0.518
15 6241 B/SMA Casey Plaizier, Edmonton AB, '04 Cavalier 8.167 8.67 -0.503
16 6577 A/ND Ray Hadford, Everett WA, Spitzer-Chevy 6.945 7.42 -0.475
17 6018 F/SM Jim Warter, Olalla WA, '92 Camaro 8.775 9.25 -0.475
18 7000 C/ED Craig Schuck, Springfield OR, Sarmento-Che 7.396 7.87 -0.474
19 600 B/SMA Jeff Lane, North Bend WA, '09 Cobalt 8.230 8.67 -0.440
20 6410 C/AA Dennis Myers, Prosser WA, '02 Neon 7.714 7.96 -0.246
21 6325 A/A Frank Nelson, Auburn WA, '05 Cavalier 7.290 7.11 0.180
22 689 F/A Maureen Jondahl, Ridgefield WA, '92 Firebi 9.100 8.62 0.480
23 6666 A/AA Barry Hobson, Seattle WA, '06 Grand Am 7.728 7.15 0.578
24 6162 AA/AM Bernie Plourd, Kent WA, '32 Bantam 8.730 7.07 1.660

Other Canadian standouts in Comp were Alberta's Dale Giroux and Casey Plazier, with a .61-second under the index
pass by Giroux putting him in the #6 and a .50 under for Plazier to place him 14th. With four cars in the field of
24, including two in the top six, there's a chance for a Canadian champion this weekend in Comp.

As the Pro Stock cars rolled out at the stroke of noon, the conditions were much better than yesterday's test of
extremes. The air temp was only 76 F and the track a "balmy" 111 F, with a corrected air reading of only 2166 ft.
Many degrees and 1000 feet better than yesterday afternoon and certain to produce even better performances. The
only slight downside was the 49% humidity but as the altitude showed, it wasn't a major factor and as the air
temp increases it will decrease throughout the afternoon.

As the Pro Stock session goes on, car after car picks up three to five hundredths of a second until Johnny Gray
and Mike Edwards break into the 50-zone with side-by-side 6.59's. Edwards quicker by a thousandth of a second and
Gray faster by two tenths of a mile per hour. No one else joined them in the 50's but the field as a whole tightened
up some more and the bump spot of 6.741 left Erica Enders on the outside of the field by just 4-thousandths.

Following the semi-fast door cars, the "Kings of the Sport" (been a while since you've read that term, eh?) came out
and started working on some more go-fast. Led by two Washington state racers, "Renton Ron" Smith and Terry Haddock,
both of whom got down the track without major difficulty other than tire smoke for Haddock. Four of the next six
cars ran in the 4.0 zone, but the lack of 3's on the qualifying sheets was starting to wear on everyone.

Until that is, McClenathan broke the string and pushed into the 3's with a decent, not great, just decent 3.94,
followed in quick succession by Larry Dixon's 3.89 and a pair of 3.9's to close the session: 3.93 by Schumacher
and 3.92 by the low qualifier (from last night) Doug Kalitta. Altogether, an okay but nothing to write home about,
session. Maybe the funny cars could find their mojo next.

With the altitude up over 2300 feet, air at 80 F and track temp up marginally to 114 F. the floppers weren't going
to have it much easier. Or worse. No excuses, just perform baby.

In an inauspicious start, Grant Downing had his engine lay down again and shut off early, thankfully without dropping
anything wet and slippery or hot and shiny on the track. In the next pair, Jeff Diehl made his first lap of the race,
dropping Downing into the #15 spot and in serious danger of missing the field, despite his 4.72 pass yesterday.

In case you're not familiar with the system for seeding cars on the first day of professional qualifying, only the top
12 cars keep their first day times and the other cars start over with no qualifying time on Saturday. It can and
occasionally does happen that a time from the first day that would have been good enough to make the 16-car field is
dropped from the list and replaced with a slower time from the second day. Fair? There's pros and cons to it but it
does force the racers to make every lap count, especially on the first day.

Confirming that Downing was in trouble, the next pair of cars down the track bump him into the dreaded #17 spot,
possibly making the difference between a $10,000 payday tomorrow (first round loser) or the $3K paid to the first
alternate.

The session continued with runs ranging from fair to mediocre until Robert Hight saves the best for last and backs
up yesterday's 4.194 with a 4.199 for the best of the round and an even firmer grip on the top qualifying spot.
And the funny cars still can't seem to mile-per-hour as Worsham's 293.54 was the best of the meet so far.

With only one qualifying session left for the fuelers, things are not looking that great. So far at least. But you
just never know what's going to happen in any given race, or any particular pair, or any pass. With the pro cars out
of the way, it was time to bring back alcohol.... dragsters and funny cars that is.

The long cars came up first and with just 12 cars on hand, and only 11 of them being relatively healthy, it wasn't a
surprise to see the Bill Edwards team conspicuous by their absence. The first pair out of the lanes showed marked
improvement with Larry Miersch picking up nearly a tenth and Art Trautman nearly six seconds as he broke into the 6's
in his struggling A/Fuel car.

The next pairing of Mike Austin and Courtney Force both picked up a few hundredths and stayed in the 5.40's while
the following duo ran great side-by-side 5.39's with Brittany Force moving up three spots to the #8 qualifying spot
and Severance holding his #4 position.

Dale Carlson and Mark Niver ran next and both shut off early with engine problems, setting up the final pairing of
qualifying which matched the two hittingest hitters at this event, Chris "#1" Demke and Shawn "#2" Cowie. They didn't
disappoint as the scoreboards lit up with almost identical 5.32's, Demke still .005 quicker and setting top speed of
the meet (to this point) at 270.10 mph. What a great battle to end Top Alcohol Dragster qualifying.

Final TAD qualifying

1 7 B/AD Chris Demke, Sunland CA, Uyehara-BAE 5.322 270.10 270.10
2 4 B/AD Shawn Cowie, Delta BC, Hadman-BAE 5.327 267.69 267.69
3 777 A/FD Mark Niver, Phoenix AZ, Niver-BAE 5.341 270.05 270.05
4 613 B/AD Joey Severance, Woodburn OR, Hadman-MBR 5.382 264.29 264.29
5 745 A/FD Brittany Force, Yorba Linda CA, McKinney 5.396 262.79 262.79
6 744 A/FD Courtney Force, Yorba Linda CA, McKinney 5.410 260.81 260.81
7 69 TA/D Mike Austin, Medford OR, Uyehara-BAE 5.421 263.51 263.51
8 64 B/AD Dale Carlson, Olympia WA, Hadman-BAE 5.422 262.49 262.49
9 703D A/FD Kyle Rizzoli, San Luis Obispo CA, Spitze 5.515 266.00 266.00
10 712 A/FD Larry Miersch, Huntington Beach CA, Spit 5.524 241.97 251.39
11 7388 A/FD Art Trautman, Wadell AZ, Hadman-KB 6.679 225.86 225.86
12 667 B/AD Bill Edwards Jr., Sumas WA, Swindahl-TFX 7.667 112.08 112.08

The 13-car Alcohol Funny Car contingent all appeared in the staging lanes this time, with several close battles for
position being played out and the final round of the rained-out Mission divisional race being featured as the final
pair of the session.

Starting things off with a real stunner, Doug Gordon went from the outhouse to the penthouse in just 5.62 seconds,
nearly hitting 260 mph in the process to jump all the way to the top of the ladder. He definitely served notice on
the rest of the field with that run. Northwest heavy Clint Thompson came out next and again failed to rotate the
earth, pedalling his way to a 6.0 timeslip and cementing his position at the bottom of the field.

Three out of the next four cars showed small improvements, but position changes were minimal, with only Larry Miner
changing, moving down one notch to eighth. In the second to last pair of the session Steve Gasparelli put up a big
number on the scoreboard, notching a much-improved 5.63 to jump into the number #2 spot. And to close out the session,
John Lombardo Jr. and Sean O'Bannon rang up matching 5.6's to move up one spot each.

If not for Clint Thompson's tribulations, it would have been an all 5-second field, with the top ten cars in the 5.70's
and quicker.

TAFC Final qualifying

1 73 Doug Gordon, Paso Robles CA, '07 Monte Carlo 5.624 259.26 259.26
2 9 Steve Gasparrelli, W. Covina CA, '09 Mustang 5.639 257.58 257.58
3 61 Brian Hough, Junction City OR, '10 Monte Carlo 5.639 254.90 254.90
4 75 John Lombardo Jr., Brea CA, '10 Monte Carlo 5.639 249.90 249.90
5 3 Sean O'Bannon, Ontario CA, '08 Monte Carlo 5.664 256.55 256.55
6 62 Ken Webster, Red Deer AB, '10 Monte Carlo 5.738 249.63 252.14
7 64 John Evanchuk, Edmonton AB, '02 Firebird 5.742 248.66 248.98
8 757 Larry Miner, Lodi CA, '06 Monte Carlo 5.744 252.24 252.24
9 799 Sean Bellemeur, Tustin CA, '05 Firebird 5.791 248.29 248.29
10 6931 Jeff Ashwell, Keizer OR, '09 Mustang 5.797 245.14 245.14
11 660 Jim Peters, Molalla OR, '08 Impala 5.903 241.80 244.34
12 6057 Dave Germain, Toledo WA, '02 Firebird 5.931 241.41 241.41
13 63 Clint Thompson, Klamath Falls OR, '06 Monte Ca 6.087 158.20 158.20

Just before the final pro qualifying, the Comp(licated) cars came out for their first round of eliminations. It was
definitely not a good day to be Canadian, as all four Canucks were gone by the end of the round. First, and biggest,
to fall was low qualifier Rob Harrison, who redlighted away a sure win as his opponent got very out of shape and
shut off. Harrison slowly coasted down, disgusted with himself no doubt as he watched his weekend ended by the big
winlight on the other lane's scoreboard.

Langley's Bob Marshall laid down another 7-teen but couldn't put enough of a holeshot on his opponent to overcome
a six hundredths performance disadvantage and get to the second round. The Alberta cars of Giroux and Plazier
suffered losing but different fates, as Giroux redlighted by .008 second anbd Plazier cut a great light, ran well,
but lost by .021 second. Tough losses all, and the end of the event for all of them.

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5:30 PM UPDATE:

With the atmospheric conditions at their worst for the day (82 F air, 127 F track, 46% humidity and over 2500 feet
of corrected altitude, the Pro Stock got to test the track first in the final pro qualifying session.

I could sum up the round as "nothing to write home about", but I'm still writing, aren't I? Half the cars failed to
improve and the other half simply overpowered the track, got out of shape or shook the tires HARD and shut off very
early. No position changes and the only non-qualified car stayed in that position as Erica Enders' weekend was over
in just 12 seconds - the length of time it took to coast down the track after she shut off.

PS Final order

1 1 Mike Edwards, Coweta OK, '09 GXP 6.598 209.75 209.75
2 9 Johnny Gray, Artesia NM, '09 GXP 6.599 209.92 209.92
3 7 Allen Johnson, Greeneville TN, '10 Avenger 6.601 210.28 210.28
4 2 Greg Anderson, Morresville NC, '09 GXP 6.610 209.20 209.20
5 50 Jeg Coughlin, Delaware OH, '10 Cobalt 6.611 210.01 210.01
6 3 Jason Line, Mooresville NC, '09 GXP 6.612 209.01 209.04
7 6 Ron Krisher, Warren OH, '10 Cobalt 6.617 208.94 208.94
8 730 Shane Gray, Denver NM, '09 GXP 6.631 208.42 208.42
9 55 V. Gaines, Lakewood CO, '10 Avenger 6.635 208.30 208.30
10 208 Warren Johnson, Sugar Hill GA, '09 GXP 6.636 209.82 209.82
11 8 Kurt Johnson, Sugar Hill GA, '10 Cobalt 6.639 208.91 208.91
12 41 Rodger Brogdon, Tomball TX, '09 GXP 6.645 208.59 208.59
13 4 Greg Stanfield, Bossier City LA, '09 GXP 6.659 208.10 208.10
14 406 Bob Yonke, Burleson TX, '09 GXP 6.675 207.62 207.62
15 357 Larry Morgan, Newark OH, '10 Mustang 6.725 207.66 207.66
16 109 Jim Cunningham, Crownsville MD, '10 Mustang 6.741 206.42 206.42

------------ Not Qualified ------------

17 430 Erica Enders, New Orleans LA, '10 Mustang 6.745 207.50 207.50

From the ridiculous to the sublime, the slowest to the fastest, the... you get the picture as the Top Fuel cars
come up and.... Chrisman smokes the tires early in his solo pass, Grubnic hazes them later on his solo, McMillen
loses grip on his pass, but Steve Torrence rips off a 4-flat to bring some semblance of performance potential to
the assembled masses in the grandstands.

That prompts a slight aside to this story, as the stands never filled on what is traditionally the best attended day
of the nationals, and at no time did they reach more than 3/4 full. Not a bad crowd, but definitely down on previous
years. I've already covered (in the event preview) possible reasons for this scenario, but it's really noticeable.

The last four pairs go through the motions, each one featuring a 3-second run alongside a four second or slower pass
and the final session saw Larry Dixon's 3.91 at 309 mph "stand out" as the best of the round. It should be noted that
only 12 of the 15 cars on site came out to run, with Ron "One Run" Smith, Terry Haddock and Mike Strasburg not making
the call.

TF Final Order

1 22 Doug Kalitta, Ypsilanti MI, Attac-TFX 3.884 313.58 313.58
2 2 Larry Dixon, Brownsburg IN, Hadman-TFX 3.896 305.42 311.77
3 4 Cory McClenathan, Brownsburg IN, DSR-TFX 3.921 308.35 308.35
4 1 Tony Schumacher, Brownsburg IN, DSR-TFX 3.937 297.22 305.29
5 3 Antron Brown, Brownsburg IN, DSR-TFX 3.964 303.03 303.03
6 5 Brandon Bernstein, Fairview TX, McKinney-TFX 3.976 299.06 299.06
7 333 Shawn Langdon, Brownsburg IN, Hadman-TFX 3.993 295.72 300.00
8 34 Morgan Lucas, Brownsburg IN, Hadman-TFX 4.002 299.00 299.00
9 475 Steve Torrence, Kilgore TX, Hadman-TFX 4.008 293.35 299.60
10 3516 Terry McMillen, Elkhart IN, McKinney-TFX 4.035 292.01 292.58
11 44 David Grubnic, Ypsilanti MI, Attac-TFX 4.056 269.62 269.62
12 700 Steven Chrisman, Anaheim CA, McKinney-TFX 4.251 241.02 241.02
13 640 Ron Smith, Renton WA, Hadman-TFX 4.430 263.15 263.15
14 72 Mike Strasburg, Lindon UT, Hadman-TFX 4.472 188.67 188.67
15 121 Terry Haddock, Temple WA, Hadman-BAE 6.702 101.31 101.90

Moving to the nitro funny cars, the lanes are nearly full with only Gary Densham remaining in the pits. Solidly
placed in the field with a pretty well unbumpable 4.28 pass earlier, he's elected to not spend another pension check
on the nitro it'll take to run this session. Another low-buck racer, Jeff Diehl is in the lanes, trying to defend
his bump spot position.

Coming out of the lanes is the Kiwi, Grant Downing, and his string of awful luck this weekend follows him to the 660
foot lights where the engine comes undone again and he slows to a 5.17 pass, missing the field by 5-hundredths of a
second. Insult and injury and all that, as his tuning consultant Chuck Worsham is really scratching his head now. As
soon as Downing lights up the scoreboard, the bump spot boy, Jeff Diehl, pulls out of line and heads back to the pits
as he's safe and qualified.

Twenty minutes later we're back in action and Brian Thiel wastes an engine at the finish line, leaving another big
trail of parts and oil in the shutdown area. More downtime in the hot afternoon sun and the fans are starting to
trickle away as the clock ticks away. 15 more minutes of cleanup time and we finally get the rest of the round
completed with only one errant blower belt to slow things down for the briefest of interludes.

The performances weren't any better than earlier sessions, with no 4-teens and nary a side-by-side race for the
whole round. The only pair even close together were Wilkerson and Cruz Pedregon and that only stayed that way for
about 400 feet. Best of the round was the Cruzer's 4.22 at 292 mph. The group as a whole was running well below
everyone's expectations for fuel funny car and that's not a good portent for eliminations tomorrow. One position
change of note was C. Pedregon's big jump from #14 to #3, while everyone else stayed the same or dropped one notch.

FC Final order

1 1 Robert Hight, Yorba Linda CA, '09 Mustang 4.194 291.57 291.57
2 7 Del Worsham, Chino Hills CA, '10 Solara 4.202 293.54 293.54
3 71 Cruz Pedregon, Brownsburg IN, '10 Solara 4.220 292.08 292.08
4 28 Ron Capps, Carlsbad CA, '10 Charger 4.222 286.38 286.38
5 2 Ashley Force Hood, Yorba Linda CA, '10 Mustang 4.225 287.23 287.23
6 8 Bob Tasca III, Cranston RI, '10 Mustang 4.257 285.29 287.35
7 2814 Matt Hagan, Christianburg VA, '10 Charger 4.258 264.60 275.79
8 9 John Force, Yorba Linda CA, '10 Mustang 4.269 285.35 285.35
9 5 Jack Beckman, Norco CA, '10 Charger 4.275 284.03 284.03
10 170 Jeff Arend, San Dimas CA, '08 Solara 4.276 284.39 284.39
11 4 Tim Wilkerson, Springfield IL, '10 Mustang 4.277 287.23 287.23
12 782 Gary Densham, Bellflower CA, '07 Impala 4.285 285.11 285.11
13 116 Paul Lee, Anaheim CA, '10 Impala SS 4.321 277.66 277.66
14 6 Tony Pedregon, Brownsburg IN, '10 Impala 4.331 254.90 254.90
15 717 Brian Thiel, Pleasant Grove CA, '10 Impala 4.516 267.27 267.27
16 719 Jeff Diehl, Salinas CA, '07 Monte Carlo 5.120 151.20 151.20

------------ Not Qualified ------------

17 728 Grant Downing, Fullerton CA, '06 Monte Carlo 5.171 151.04 198.38

Next up is the first round of eliminations for Top Alcohol, the second round off Comp, and second and third rounds
of the various super/stock categories until the 9:00 pm curfew.

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7:00 PM UPDATE:

It's been a very long 90 minutes to get through the first round of eliminations for Top Alcohol Dragster and Funny
Car. Do the math: 5 1/2 pairs of dragsters, 6 1/2 pairs of funny cars, 90 minutes. Average time per pair: 7 1/2
minutes. Priceless? Hardly.

The reason? Carnage, breakage, destruction and miscellaneous mayhem. It started early with Joey Severance banging
the big screw blower at the 1000 ft. mark in the first pair of dragsters to let Kyle Rizzoli sneak past for the
win. At least there wasn't any serious cleanup time required.

The next pair saw another injected vs. blown battle and the fueler of Art "The Salmon" Trautman didn't even contest
it, as he couldn't select reverse (probably clutch pack issues) and had to idle through after the burnout. With the
free pass to the quarter-finals Shawn Cowie gave it all he had and after a great 5.36 pass, went through the lights
trailing smoke.... and oil.

With that cleanup done, a pair of injected cars ran next, and Larry Miersch gave the win to a slower Mark Niver,
redlighting by over two tenths of a second. Next up was another alky vs. nitro tilt with the blown car of Mike
Austin winning easily, leaving on young Ms. C. Force, and outrunning her to win by four car lengths.

Then the drama starts as Courtney blows a rear tire just before the finish line, taking out a large section of the
rear wing in the process, and making her work very hard to keep the car off the wall. Thankfully her opponent,
Austin, was well ahead and out of the way of the out-of-control dragster. Courtney was seen out of the car and
in the arms of her Mom and Dad, just fine and smiling while the cleanup crews went to work once more. By the way,
there's been no word yet on what may have caused the tire to blow and anything reported here would be speculation.

After the long cleanup of debris from Force's tire explosion, the next pair turned into a solo as the Hugh Ridley
crew were unable to fire the Dale Carlson-driven car and Brittany Force took a troubled single pass, with a cylinder
out all the way, and giving up lane choice to Shawn Cowie in the second round.

The final pair of the first round turned into yet another single as Bill Edwards Jr. failed to appear and Chris
Demke took to the stage by himself for an absolutely bravura performance: 5.319 at 270.37 mph, low e.t. and top
speed of the meet. A large amount of salvation after a mostly forgettable round of racing.

Short carbon-clad cars came out next, with low qualifier Doug Gordon making a solid opening pass.... until the
1000 ft. mark where the blower went BANG and he slowed quickly. Next up were two hitters, with snake-bit Clint
Thompson finding a way to lose as he blows an engine and lets Gasparelli win with a pass almost identical to
his #2 qualifying 5.63 - 257 mph clocking.

After yet another long cleanup, the scheduled Larry Miner vs. John Evanchuk match turned into a bye for Evanchuk
as Miner was unable to show and Evanchuk slowed and shut off early to a 5.84 at only 231 mph. No oil or parts on
the track though and at this point, that's about all we can hope for. We're well over an hour into this round
of alcohol eliminations and there's still four pairs left to run. Spectator count at this point: approaching
negative numbers.

After the lone remaining Canadian alky flopper of Ken Webster got past Sean Bellemeur's 5.83 with a rather
ordinary 5.74, the last three winners of the round all ran low 5.60's to advance. Leading the charge with the
provisional low e.t. of the meet was Sean O'Bannon at 5.605, followed closely by John Lombardo Jr. at 5.614,
and Brian Hough at a pretty good 5.639.

The three losing cars were all Northwest based, and only Oregon's Jeff Ashwell gave a good fight, carding a
losing 5.86 against O'Bannon. And in the final alcohol pair of the round, Washington's Dave Germain was shut
off before staging to possibly prevent another episode of "clean me if you can" on the track-cam.

With all the "serious" cars done for the day and no Canucks left in Comp eliminator, it was time to head for
the motel, the restaurant and get some sleep before coming back tomorrow for the final day of eliminations of
the Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways. Join us for the in-depth reports we're known for here at
SpeedZone.