Rain has once again soaked the Beech Bend facility, putting us a couple of hours behind schedule. Track drying is complete and we've got bracket cars on the track. Eliminations for our heads-up categories were scheduled to get underway at noon, but we'll obviously have some adjustments today.

Thanks to some internet forum mongers, the Lutz and Kinzer camp pulled the "sissy sticks" (that's slang for wheelie bars for the uninfomed) off the radial-clad Mustang and ran an even quicker 7.03 at 224 MPH that catapulted 83-year old Willard Kinzer to third in the Super Street order.

Jamie Stanton continued his domination of Xtreme Street in this afternoon's first round of eliminations, downing Danny Shemwell with a 7.93, low ET of the round. Bob Kurgan bested Steve Cagle with a great 8.03, and Michael Keenan, who had the second quickest pass of the round at 8.02, had troubles at the starting line with a two-second reaction time and was unable to run down Scotty G's 9.87.

Alex Viscardi was on the winning end of a nice side-by-side race with Dan Stevenson as both racer wiggled their way down the racetrack. Viscardi's 6.20 at 229 was more than enough to handle Stevenson's 6.45 at the stripe. Chris Rini went low for the round on his competition bye run at 6.103. Joe Dunne also advanced with a single when Tony Williams was unable to make the call, and Vinny Demieri also moved on to round two.

Mike Murillo is showing no signs up letting up on the competition, cranking off his best pass of the weekend on an opening round solo at 6.665 and 213.81 MPH. In a great drag race, Tony Nesbitt grabbed a scant .053 to .055 holeshot, but his 6.97 couldn't fend off the 6.94 posted by Ed Rice.

Willard Kinzer came up a little short of Frank Mewshaw in a great opening round matchup, 6.83 to a 7.04. But in the process, Kinzer reset the Super Street speed record another notch with a 226.09 MPH blast.

Andy Vogt recorded a nice 7.42 in his opening round race with Keith McCoy to advance on to the next round, where he'll be joined by Jim Jarrett, Skip Baskin, and Jeff Colletta.

Michael DeMayo was able to overcome a sizeable holeshot by Don Bowles to advance to the next round of Pro Stock, his 8.63 and .057 light edging Bowles' 8.70 combined with a stellar .011 reaction time. Don Baskin, Charlie Booze Jr., and top qualifier Robbie Blankenship also made their way into round two.

Benny Smith, at the wheel of one of Don Baskin's parking lot full of race cars, defeated Gary Duncan in the first round of Mean Street, 10.37 to 10.55. Baskin himself, the top qualifier, moved on thanks to a first round single in which he staged, backed up, and drove it back to the trailer.

Orson Johnson bested Michael Fratena in the opening round of 275 Drag Radial, setting up a final round match with the heavily favored Jason Lee.

Frank Mewshaw was unable to make the call for the second round of Super Street, handing a competition single to Ed Rice. In the other pairing, Mike Murillo reminded us all that he's human, slowing to a 6.95 at just 175 MPH as his SCT Mustang left a plume of smoke at the stripe. Nevertheless, he'll have lane choice over Rice in the final, his 6.95 to Rice's 7.01.

Vinny Demieri is having an outstanding weekend after engine woes sent him home early in Joliet. In the second round of Pro Street, Demieri used a great 6.24 at 226.58 MPH to oust Alex Viscardi, whose Mustang struggled down the racing surface and slowed from his earlier pace to a 6.45. In the round's other heavyweight matchup, Chris Rini shook as he went by the christmas tree and had to pedal, allowing Jeff Lutz to sail into the semifinals with a 6.30. Joe Dunne, meanwhile, earned another single run into the semi's, clocking a 6.22.

It wasn't a pretty way to win, but Dan Kroll will certainly take it. Opponent Bill Trovato broke on the burnout, giving Kroll a single, to which he proceeded to break just off the starting line and rolled to a stop downtrack. In the semifinals, Kroll will be joined by Bob Kurgan, Phil Smith - who took Enzo Pecchini in a great drag race - and Jamie Stanton.

On paper, it would've taken an error on Jason Lee's part for Orson Johnson to earn the Drag Radial win, but unfortunately, he didn't get the chance to try as his Mustang broke in the staging lanes. Adding insult to injury, Lee blew the tires off right at the drop of the green.

Jeff Lutz, Patrick Barnhill, and the rest of the Lutz crew are thrashing in the pits with an ignition issue as the call goes out for Pro Street to head to the lanes for the semifinals.

Mike Murillo indicated that the puff of smoke from his machine was nothing more than baby powder exiting the parachutes. He'll face Ed Rice for the Super Street crown in a short while.

With Jeff Lutz broken, the semifinals became the finals, and Vinny Demieri used consistency to cap a great weekend with a win, running a 6.21 in the final as Joe Dunne got out in the marbles and did a great job of driving to keep his Camaro out of the wall.

It was an all Baskin Racing finale in Mean Street, with the family patriarch taking the victory with a 10.08 from his Chevy II, easily handling the 10.32 posted by Benny Smith.

Robbie Blankenship has pretty well dominated Pro Stock this weekend, and moved into the final with a close semifinal defeat of Michael DeMayo, 8.56 to an 8.64. In the final, he'll meet the always tough Charlie Booze Jr.

It's not a very common occurrence, but Charlie Booze Jr. came into the Pro Stock final as the underdog, and true to form this weekend, Robbie Blankenship led this one virtually wire-to-wire, leaving just .005 behind Booze Jr. and clicking off an 8.53 to a losing 8.76.

Andy Vogt had a great weekend, reaching the finals in Nostalgia Pro Street, but unfortunately this is about as far as his Firebird would make it under power, as Jim Jarrett cruised to a 7.32 victory.

Ed Rice's Mustang popped and banged right off the starting line and that was all the window that Mike Murillo needed, running his slowest elapsed time of the day at 7.27 and 188.75 MPH for the Super Street title.

With Jamie Stanton broke, Phil Smith had an easy trip to the final with an 8.12 solo, while Bob Kurgan won out on the other side of the ladder with an 8.06 defeat of Dan Kroll. In the final, Smith's run came to an end with a -.229 red light, giving an easy win to Kurgan.