With two rounds in the books and qualifying complete, it would seem the Pro Street tile this weekend goes through Clint Hairston, who qualified atop the field with his stout 6.03 yesterday afternoon off the trailer, followed up this morning with a 6.06 in the heat -- the quickest run of the day in the category.

Tim Pelech watches on as brother Ted makes his final qualifying attempt this morning. Pelech clocked a 7.09 best to position himself at No. 10 in the qualifying order and a first round date with Steve Summers.

After struggling early last night in his lone shot at the race track, Tim Essick laid down a 6.73 at 216.10 mph to jump right up to the No. 5 spot in Super Street/Pro Outlaw 10.5W. Essick will square off with Bill Houghton in his '69 Cuda in round one.

Frank Mewshaw again made certain that mosquitoes weren't an issue here at Route 66, with smoke billowing from the exhaust. It didn't matter however, as Mewshaw made his best run of the weekend at 7.02 to qualify No. 9.

Illinois native Brian Hicks' twin-turbocharged, Hemi-powered '74 Challenger is without a doubt one of the baddest rides on the property. Hicks has struggled thus far with only a 7.49 best, which will give him a date with No. 2 qualifier Tony Nesbitt in round one.

Hot Rod Drag Week star Larry Larson is in the house with his unspeakably wicked Chevrolet Nova and came to the starting line alongside his buddy Joe Barry for a little exhibition match, but had troubles at the hit, backed off the starting line, and drove away. Larson and Barry both traveled out a week ahead of the big street car cruise-in at Gus's Drive-In next weekend, and the big talk around the pits is the pair is headed out on the town tonight with their six and seven-second street machines.

The slight chance of rain in the forecast never materialized, but the ominous clouds rolled in during the first round of heads-up eliminations and brought some instant heat-relief to everyone here at Route 66.

Local boy Dan Stevenson made the home crowd happy when he laid down his best run of the event - a 6.12 - to turn back the quicker-qualified Jeff Lutz in a great first round matchup.

Mike Murillo popped off the quickest lap of the opening round - a 6.64 - to defeat one-time Xtreme Street racer Enzo Pecchini.

Shawn Baker launched with the wheels up, shook, pedaled, stood back up and rattled the tires some more before he finally reigned it in and watched Darren Breaud sail to victory at 7.31-seconds in the opening round.

Bob Curran will have his hands full when Xtreme Street eliminations continues tomorrow, as the other two racers in the category to advance, Bill Trovato and Phil Smith, both outran his 8.15 with laps of 7.98 and 8.01 respectively.

Charlie Booze Jr., who shot to the head of the combined Hot Street/Pro Stock class in the final qualifying session, recorded low elapsed time of the opening round -- his 8.53 besting Shane Long's 9.08. Based on the round one numbers, the remaining two rounds should be interesting, with the slowest winning elapsed time belonging to Greg Delaney at 8.67.

Jeremy Gillam was the pacesetter once again, parlaying a wheels-up charge into a 9.89 defeat of Shawn Johnson and his 10.16 in the first round. Brandon Alsept was the next closest challenger to Gillam with his opening round 10.06.