Let’s get right to the action.

In the Mr. Gasket Pro 5.0 Class, nine serious racers showed up to do battle. Chuck Samuel qualified #1 with a 6.659 at 215.62 MPH. This made Chuck eligible for the Mickey Thompson Tires Pro Challenge Lottery $1000 bonus if he won the event. It wasn’t to be however (so it will now be a $2000 M/T Bonus at the next event). The other entries in Pro included Don Walsh, Jr., Dan Saitz, Mike Herring, Tom Jacobs (wait until you see a photo of Tom’s ’67 Mustang), Ben Hopko, Chuck Simons, Brit Floyd (with his new Mustang) and David Hance. David had the misfortune of getting out of the groove at the start of his qualifying run, moving over to the centerline and then having the car hook hard right, hitting the guardrail. David is all right but the car isn’t.

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During eliminations, Mike Herring took out Tom Jacobs and Chuck Samuel (6.542 @ 215.36 to Chuck’s losing 6.613 @ 218.71) to get into the finals. Don Walsh handled Chuck Simons and Ben Hopko in eliminations to run Herring in the finals. It was Herring’s big block nitrous Mustang outrunning Walsh’s supercharged small block Mustang in the finals, 6.532 @ 210.62 to Walsh’s losing 6.653 @ 208.04.

In the ProCharger 10.5 Street Outlaw class, twelve racers made the cut in qualifying, with Billy Glidden on top with a 7.181, 186.14. Tim Lynch was right behind (in a back-up Mustang) with a 8.364, 189.83. Tim’s regular 6-second Mustang is going through some re-doing at the chassis shop and will be out soon.

During eliminations, Billy ran a 7.11, 7.20, and a 7.19 to put him in the finals with Eric Pezzuti’s Mustang. It was close but in the end, Billy’s 7.187, 188.28 was just enough to compensate for Eric’s .007 light. Eric ran a 7.425 at 189.15. As the #1 qualifier and class winner, Billy also collected the Aeromotive Outlaw Challenge bonus of $500.

During eliminations, Lance Styck had his Mustang in front at the finish line only to have a parachute failure cause his car to veer over into the grass at the extreme end of the track and turn over. Lance was OK but since he was not able to go across the scales, the car he beat was re-instated back into competition.

Twenty seven cars entered the Muscle Mustang & Fast Ford Spring Break Shootout class, sponsored by Pro50shifter.com. The #1 qualifier was the lovely Gina Munden at 8.510, 163.63. There were six 8-second cars and ten 9-second cars in the field. All "streetable" cars too. Yeah, right.

In the finals, the SBSO winner was Jason (Muscles) Ardron beating Gina with a 8.568, 162.16 to Gina’s losing 8.533, 163.33. The winning .056 RT to a .129 made the difference.

In the BFG Tire Drag Radial class, Adam Louramore qualified #1 with a 8.687, 162.19. Right behind was Brian Tambone with a 8.757, 161.60. In the finals, it was just the opposite with Brian (8.802, 161.75) getting the win over a shutting off Adam.

The Borla Street Renegade class and the UPR 7-Second Club has been getting a lot of attention lately and the Orlando event was no exception. Nobody has been inducted into the Club yet, but it was close. Crede Young qualified on top in the eight car field with a 8.099, 167.81. And in the finals, it was Crede beating Jimmy Black with another great 8-second run (8.079). A 7.99 is just a whisker away.

The Edelbrock Street Bandit class had Matt Jones and Rod Houck qualifying #1 and #2, and that’s exactly how the finished in eliminations, too. Matt’s winning time was 8.513, 160.28 over Rod’s losing 8.574, 159.06.

In the hotly contested Blow By Racing Street Warrior class, it was 2004 Champ Darrell Peterson qualifying #1 with an almost unbelievable 9.566, 137.86. And wouldn’t you know, right behind at a 9.782 was Jeremy Martorella. Jeremy broke in the first round so we never had a chance to see a match up between Jeremy and Darrell. Soon, I’m sure. Anyway, Darrell took care of a very able John Scaro in the finals, with a 9.654, 137.09 to John’s 9.876, 137.93.

The FFW 12.50 Index class is sponsored by Superchips Custom Tuning. This promises to be a hard fought class all season ling. In the eleven car field, several cars were running in the 12.50’s, with Tom Conrad’s perfect 12.500. Tom clicked off a 12.532, a 12.504, a 12.519 and a 12.592 in the finals over Chris Parisi’s losing 12.624.

Moving on to the FFW’s newest Showdown Class, the Ford Racing Parts Open Comp class. Twenty four entries were on the sheet, with a quick 9.354 ET (Jon Pickering) down to a low 15.632 ET (Gene Hindman). After five rounds, it was Kevin Todd on top over Greg Essen.

The Steeda / Hyland Mod Motor class had forty three entries vying for the big money. The ET range was 10.054 to 13.916, with anyone and everyone having an equal chance. Not to be denied however was Alabama’s own, Gary (ain’t I cute) Youngblood. Runner-up was James Meredith out of Katy, TX.

In the JDM Engineering Top Truck class, we had twenty seven pick-ups in competition. Five rounds later it was Don Justus over Bob Cochran for the win.

And what about those Focus Frenzy crazies? This year, the Focus Frenzy class is sponsored by JBA Headers. Ten entries lined up to do their burnouts with the front tires. In an all Florida final, it was Brandon Hedges from Jacksonville over home town (Orlando) Chad Padget.