With a full slate of competition for this weekend's Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, sportsman competition kicked off on Thursday with some Lucas Oil Series divisions completing qualifying and one round of eliminations.

Comp Eliminator completed two sessions of qualifying, and at the end of the day, Terry Smith's A/Dragster Automatic was the quickest with a 6.481 elapsed time, -.589 under his 7.07 index. Pat Ross was second with 7.705, -.575 under the D/Altered standard. David Billingsley was third, -.555 under the I/Altered Automatic index.

Super Stock proved to be a performance clinic for classic American Motors Company machinery. The field was paced by the 1969 AMX of A.H. Adkins, running an 8.934, -.966 under the SS/B Automatic index. Garrett Ghezzi was second in his GT/OA AMX, running -.877 under with a 10.573. Jeffrey Meyer was third quickest with his Factory Super Stock/E 2015 Camaro.

Among the first round upsets, George Wright took out Meyers, Zach Running took out Ghezzi while Rock Running upended world champion Justin Lamb. In all, only three top ten qualifiers survived the first round.

Jim Marshall's South Carolina-based 1977 Nova was the top runner in Stock, posting an 11.152, -1.148 under the I/Stock Automatic standard. Larry DeForrest's Factory Stock/D 2010 Mustang was second (-1.110, 9.490) while Chris Stephenson's traditional D/Stock Automatic 1968 Firebird was third (-1.027, 10.523). In the biggest first-round upset, Todd Hoven took out No. 6 qualifier Drew Skillman. Eight of the top ten qualifiers advanced to round two.

Both Super categories completed first rounds and Tyler Schneider (Super Comp) and Ron Lower (Super Gas) ran dead-on to capture their first-round wins.

Steve Will paced Top Dragster with a 6.009, 233.84. CompetitionPlusTV's Kathy Fisher stands fourth with one session remaining.

Lester Johnson's popular '55 Chevy was tops in Top Sportsman with a 6.149, 231.32.