Sunday Eliminations brought the same hot and humid weather to Atco New Jersey for the Kooks Custom Headers Muscle Car Nationals. It also brought some serious action as getting down the track was not real easy as the sun beat down.
The strangest event of the day was first round of Nitto tires Super Street elimination. Dave Laurer gets some reptilian support for a 5.80 run. The snake responsible for tripping the false light, was taken into custody and held for questioning as allegations of a scandal mount.
Then in the first round of Pro Street Eliminations number one qualifier Vinny Budano has some trouble getting down the track and hands the win over to George Landis who managed to make it to the semi’s from the number 16 qualifier position, before red lighting against Chris Rini.
George Landis in mental preperation for his match up with Chris Rini
In the second half of the Semi’s Tony Bischoff faced off against Mark Micke to see who would face Chris Rini in the final. Both drivers seemed to have fairly clean runs until Tony in the left lane started drifting toward the center, but seemed to loose control from their ended up taping the left wall twice, before shooting across the track hard and going hard into the right wall. Tony got out alright, but his car suffered some pretty serious body damage.
Tony looking good for the crash 
Bischoff out and surveying the damage 
Tony manages a smile while discussing the accident
Rini and Micke squared off in the final round with an all out drag race. Rini cut a .055 light to Micke's .069, but it was not quite enough as Micke ran a 6.498 @ 220 to Rini's 6.522 @ 217. The Final margin of victory was just 0.0109 seconds.
Nitto Tires Super Street class had it’s own drama, as the 139 degree track temperatures did not agree with 10.5 tires.
Spirro Pappas the number one qualifier had some problems staging in the second round, cutting a misserable 0.592 light, and pulling off a weak 1.914 60ft sending him to the trailer early.
Keith Neal was on the receiving end of Pappas’ misfortune, putting his team into the semi finals where his luck ran out at the hands of number 3 qualifier Jim Blair.
Tony Nesbitt, the number 2 qualifier and fastest car in the Saturday qualifying heat, also had some serious staging issues, cutting a 0.518 light to Tommy Muaro’s 0.012.
Tommy went on to race the faster Jim Blair in the finals, where he benefited from a little racing luck when Jim lost traction and handed the win to Tommy Muaro.
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