It is another sunny and cool day at Bradenton. We roll into our final two qualifying sessions today and eliminations on Sunday. Special thanks goes out to Mickey Thompson for sponsoring our event coverage.  Check them out at www.mickeythompsontires.com

Saturday Morning Pit Notes

There is a new NMRA car out of the Triangle Speed Shop in Texas, driven by Daniel Pachar. This is a former Outlaw 8.5 car setup with the larger true 10.5” tires for the Super Street Outlaw class. Daniel normally runs 5.20s in the eighth in Outlaw 8.5 trim and hopes to get into the 7.70s today. The motor is a 282ci 2-valve with a F2 Procharger. Daniel plans to also run Joliet and the non-points event in Texas at the end of the year.

We didn’t see Sean Lyon during first round of qualifying yesterday. The problem ended up being a bad bearing cartridge that was causing the compressor wheel to clip the inside of the housing. A new turbo is on and he will be in qualifying round two coming up. Sean has also been working on a new cam/valvetrain combination and tested it for the first time last week at ORTC where he managed a respectable 4.92 in the eighth.

Johnny Mac won his first race at zMax last year but also suffered some catastrophic engine failure. The problem was broken wrist pin. Part of the new combination includes a new piston/ring package and a 3.70” stroker crank. Johnny thinks the engine is up about 80-100hp over the previous engine, though he is not sure since the engine has not been on the dyno. Also a new housing and ladder bar setup will aid in delivering the additional traction.

The Drag Radial guys had a hard time with their transmissions yesterday as we saw four cars in a row with their transmissions out. One of those guys still working on sorting out a few bugs this morning was Jason Lee. They were not sure if they were going to make qualifying round two.

Qualifying Round 2 Notes

Conrad Scarry showed up this morning and took over the number one qualifying spot in Pro Outlaw 10.5 with a 6.788 @ 211.96 mph. Conrad is sporting some new air brushing on the front of his Mustang. Jim Blair sits in the second spot, though left last night after suffering from engine failure.

Bart Tobner came out after the record during the second round of qualifying and got it. He pulled it off with an 8.301 @ 166.08 mph. Alton Clements sits in second with his pass from the first round of qualifying.

Drag Radial is tight on the top qualifiers with a tenth and a half separating the top six qualifiers. Bob Kurgan still sits at the top with his seven second pass from yesterday. Sean Lyon comes in with his first qualifying pass with a 8.007, Jason Lee with a 8.052, 8.056 for David Guy, 8.058 for Enzo Pecchini and then Steven Biggs rounds out the top qualifiers with his attempt from yesterday.

In Pure Street, Ryan Hecox jumped up to the second qualifying spot with a 10.250 @ 128.77 mph. Following up in third spot is David Hill with a 10.273 @ 130.15 mph.

Jay Dold stays at the number one spot in Factory Stock, though took the fastest ET record away from defending 2009 champion Tommy Godfrey with a 11.015 @ 119.37 mph. It didn’t take long for tech to get to Dold’s pit as we saw the crew pulling the engine apart for inspection. Godfrey sits in second with a respectable 11.029 @ 122.24 mph.

Qualifying Round 2 Sheets

Qualifying Round 2 Pit Notes

Off to the pits after qualifying round 2 I found yet more drivetrain carnage with Tim Matherly swapping out his broken transmission in place of a new unit.

David Ginter was also under his Real Street ride, replacing a smoked clutch and doing some standard maintenance.

Sam Vincent was in need of some more gear after the first qualifying attempt and swapped out his 3.70:1 over to a 3.40:1.

Bub Kurgan had an off run during his second qualifying attempt. Bob was checking over things to make sure all was well, including inspecting his supercharger gear drive setup.

Qualifying Round 3 Notes

The most exciting class of the weekend so far has been Drag Radial. One of the tightest fields was tightened further during the last round of qualifying. A tenth and a half still separated first to seventh, but .040 separated the top four qualifiers, who were all sitting with runs in the 7s. At the top of the mound is defending champion Jason Lee with a 7.941 @ 180.14 mph.

Conrad Scarry stayed at the top of the list in Pro Outlaw 10.5 with his second round pass. Murillo bumps up to third with a 7.112 @ 197.19. We saw Murillo leaving the track to head to the Clearwater eighth mile test session to help sort the car out.

The gear change in Sam Vincent's fox body proved helpful as he showed the Super Street Outlaw class that nitrous combinations can be contenders, laying down a new SSO record with a 7.282 @ 192.47 mph. Johnny Mac would jump to the number four spot with a 7.450 @ 194.17 mph.

Newcomer Dan Baumann made his presence felt in the final round of qualifying by breaking Bruce Hemminger's Real Street record and claiming the number one spot with a 9.548 @ 141.59 mph.

2009 Factory Stock champion Tommy Godfrey would become the first ever car in the class to run in the 10 second range with a 10.964 @ 121.88.

The save of the round and the only real danger on the race track all weekend went with Renegade racer Victor Nieblas'. The car hooked to the left around 100 feet out, up on two wheels, and straightened out in the left lane when it was all done... with no damage.

Saturday Final Qualifying Sheets

News from the Pits After Qualifying Round 3

Number three qualifier David Hill went to launch his Pure Street Mustang and went no where. The crew brought out the dreaded jack to wheel the car off the track. A reach into the rear end housing presented a handful of ring and pinion pieces.

Mark Anderson did not run his Tim Matherly borrowed, converted Pure Street car during the last two rounds of qualifying. Initially, due to the intake configuration, Anderson had 20 minutes to get a hood that cleared onto his borrowed ride. At the end of the first round of qualifying, he was not happy with the performance. Though he is contemplating on running tomorrow since now his tow rig is broken, and he couldn't even leave if he wanted to.