Tyler and the boys are out this morning working on scraping the track to get ready for today’s festivities. ‘It took five days in Georgia to run a 4.02, we went 3.97 in one day in the freaking snow,’ says Crossnoe.

70 weight oil doesn’t warm up real quickly in the morning. We caught up with Jason Michalak as he and the boys were getting the world-record screw-blown machine ready to go. He was thrilled with how well the car performed yesterday given the conditions, and told us that if the track’s there today he feels they’ll go even quicker. ‘This is a team effort, and without Billy Stocklin tuning this thing and the rest of our guys on the team, we wouldn’t be where we are,’ he says. However…

If this guy has anything to say about it, Pro Drag Radial will be insane today. Bad Brad Edwards tells us that he had to pedal the car yesterday and still managed to go a 4.29, with increments quicker than his 3.94 testing pass. He had a bunch of timing pulled out on that pass. ‘If the track will take it, there’s going to be a slugfest in Pro Drag Radial today,’ he says. 3.89, anyone? Or quicker? Stay tuned…the sun is peeking out and by the time these guys get to hit the track, conditions could very well be perfect.

In one of the upsets of the weekend, Mel Collier moves on in Pro Drag Radial over Keith Berry in the first round. Berry struck the tires almost immediately on the hit , that quickly, the number-two qualifier was gone. Collier faces Richard Reagan in the second round.

This is part of what’s left from Pro Drag Radial racer Scott Lowery’s engine. Apparently the mandrel came out of the end of the crankshaft, smacked the oil pump belt, and that’s all, she wrote. Amazingly, there was no oil on the top end.

Brad Edwards put in the “get down the track” tune for the first round. With the limited testing time and tricky track this afternoon, he needed to move on. Charles Johnson was his victim – he faces nitrous racer Chad Henderson in the second round.

In another monster roundone upset, Enzo Pecchini turned in his only clean pass of the weekend so far to take out when David Pearson didn’t get down the track cleanly. Pearson’s machine is now out in both Pro Drag Radial and Outlaw 275 – Pecchini will see Bruce Johnson’s nitrous bullet in the second round.

In a battle between two of the NMRA’s Street Outlaw racers (not to be confused with the TV guys) in Outlaw 275, Phil Hines took his ProCharged machine to the win over the turbocharged rocket of Dwayne Barbaree.

Barry Mitchell turned in the second-lowest ET of the first round of Outlaw 275 with a stout 4.39 to put the Big Chief onto the trailer.

He hasn’t gotten down the track all weekend, until the first round of Outlaw 275. Chruis Tuten proceeded to uncork a stout 4.31 blast to take out Odie Sturgeon. His second round opponent? None other than “Daddy” Dave Comstock, who ran a 4.78 in round one for an easy victory over Tim Kincaid’s redlight.

There will be a tough battle in round two of X275, when Rich Bruder comes up against Shawn Ayers. The Bruder boys have looked unstoppable all weekend.

We just love MX235 competitor Marcus Wooden’s hotrod,so here’s a chance at another photo. Wooden faces Jason Collins in the second round in a battle of Chevy IIs.

Ultra Street Semis – Butch Kemp on the left, Joel Greathouse on the right. The pair qualified within one hundredth of a second of one another, setting up an epic semifinal round. .004-second was all that separated Joel Greathouse from the final, as he clipped the red bulb just a hair too early, allowing Kemp the easy victory. The scoreboard showed a 4.88 on Greathouse’s side and a 4.89 on Kemp’s side, making Kemp’s win even sweeter. On the other side of the ladder, Ronny Rhodes left way early in the all-nitrous matchup with Shawn Pevlor, setting up a Kemp/Pevlor final round.

Brian Tuten has carried high MPH in the MX235 class all weekend long – he stormed to the top end against Jason Collins, lighting the board with a 5.17 at 152 mph, just clipping Collins on the big end. The bottom side of the ladder saw Donnie Branham take the victory over Danny Tellman when Tellman popped something and slowed down.

Marty Stinnett took his Jeff Burns-powered, Southern Speed-tuned Mustang right into the final round when Phil Hines lit the red bulb on his side of the tree. The top half of the ladder saw the other Tuten, Chris, blast to a 4.29 – his quickest pass of the weekend.

Talk about coming out of nowhere – Kit Luong has outlasted the competition all weekend long. Coming from the number 18 qualified spot, Luong won over Ron Rhodes, Eric Stubbs, and Jared Johnston – three of the biggest hitters in X275, to land in the final round. His opponent will be none other than number one qualifier Rich Bruder. Can Luong be the dragonslayer this weekend?

Mark Woodruff has the battle of his life on his hands in the final round versus number one qualifier Jason Michalak. He took out Rich Ragan in the semis when Ragan got loose, while Michalek streaked to the win on his side of the ladder easily when Brad Edwards shut down and pulled over.