Nostalgia Nationals Saturday Evening Update!

It’s after 6pm here at Beech Bend Raceway and we’re working from the press tower because it beats trying to get in line to get out of the facility. With a big sun drenched crowd filing out on a one-way exit road back to town all we see is brake lights so we’re just gonna chill for a while.

Final qualifying was fairly uneventful in most classes but the first round of Top Fuel eliminations featured some excitement indeed. The first pair out was Lincoln Hassel in the small black Chevy car matched against Tom Steed in the Mr Boston. As the tree came down, Hassel red lit with a .043 foul then Steed went right and hit the guard rail which results in the ol’ “First or Worst” ruling. Since hitting the wall is worse than red-lighting, Hassel was declared the winner. Next pair out was Michael Sexton against Odie Coker. After a hi-revving burnout, it was reported that Sexton “kicked the rods” allowing Coker to streak to a 6.619 lap. The final pair of first round was David Pace in the “Backyard Guys” entry against defending champ Howard Haight. Haight took a fairly easy win with a 6.203 @ 233.96 (Low ET and top speed of the meet so far) but Pace gets credit for getting the Backyard Guys car down track on a competitive run. The team was mired with mechanical issues throughout the weekend and this opening round lap was their first full pass of the weekend. Hats off to them.

Blue Suede Cruise winner Shawn Bowen led the way in Funny Car with a stout 5.983 @ 248.07 in the “Violator” ’77 Firebird and Randy Baker ran his best lap ever at a Goodguys race, going 6.172 @ 220.58 in Danny Miller’s Rear Gears Maverick. Our old friend Mike Lewis, the same Mike Lewis who serves as the Vice President of Don Schumacher Racing took Justin Grant’s Stardust to a 6.188 @ 232.91 for the third spot. Rounding out the field was Troy Martin’s Chit Town Hustler with a 7.643 @ 140.42. The Funny Cars will come out for their first round tomorrow morning at 10am along with the Top Fuel semis.

Richard Edwards (Pro Comp I) and Pat Malloy (Pro Comp II) led qualifying in their respective divisions as did Rob Davis in B/GAS. Hats off to both Davis and second place qualifier Darrell Wathen who ran identical 8.507 ET’s in the final qualifier, their speeds determining who got the pole!

We’ll see you again tomorrow. Check back at the end of the day Sunday for a full race recap. Good night from bowling green!