StangTV

We caught up with Kenjo Kelley in the pits to talk about his wild ride yesterday at the end of qualifying. "The chute didn't open in time and I ended up in the gravel. It wasn't a fun ride, but we got the car back here, cleaned all of the gravel out from under it, and we're ready to go for this morning," he said. He and son Kenjo were hard at work getting ready when we spoke to him.

Mike Curcio is another Hot Streeter that's working hard to catch up to the competition. Yesterday, he had a rocker arm come apart on one of his passes, but the engine has been repaired and deemed healthy by the Pennsylvania-based engine builder. He and his crew were hard at work in the pits this morning prepping the car for eliminations. He will face Don Bowles in round one.

Speaking of Bowles, last weekend he raced his Roush-backed Maverick at the NMCA race at Milan Dragway. At that event, he was running his other engine, topped off with a set of Edelbrock Victor Glidden II cylinder heads. Here, he has his NMRA-spec piece between the framerails, and has been working to sort it out. "This engine is the same as Robbie Blankenship's piece - actually, the entire driveline is identical, the same engine, converter, transmission, and rearend. We've got the same camshaft and everything else, but the car is still about 6-hundredths slower than Robbie's piece. This car is a bit of a brick, so that could be where the ET is, but we're working hard to keep up," he explained.

After all of that hard work in the pits, Don Bowles went for a wild ride this morning. After standing the car up and riding out this wheelie, he then got loose on the top end and nearly ended up into the wall. It took a heroic driving effort to keep his beautiful Maverick blemish-free.

Jim Breese entered the first round of competition having to face off against teammate TIm Matherly. He bested Matherly in qualifying by three hundredths, but got a little bit anxious on the tree and turned on the dreaded red bulb.

A leaky thermostat housing ended John Leslie Jr.'s chances to pick up points on Carlos Sobrino in Factory Stock. The fluid was dripping down and the track starter shut him off. In an interesting twist, Sobrino then followed him in the lanes and redlit despite besting opponent Brian Campbell by a tenth-and-a-half.

The first round of Super Street Outlaw found Chris Tuten in the beams against Kenjo Kelley, who he had covered by nearly three tenths. A broken crankshaft just off the line ended Tuten's chances of picking up points on leader John Urist...

...who went out himself with a water leak. The water was pouring out of the collector, which got under the tires and pushed him to the right side of the track, where he did a good job of driving by keeping it off the wall.

Factory Stock competitor Matt Williams went for his own version of the wild ride. Radial tires can be quite unforgiving under tire shake conditions, and the tight track this morning sent Williams right into it off the hit. All four studs sheared off the passenger-side axle, and Williams did a great job of getting the car to come to a stop without tagging the wall.

Jason Lee continued his domination in Drag Radial this morning, clicking off a 7.85 (again the only racer in the 7's) to eliminate Sean Lyon.

Sure does look good, but it doesn't win races. Joel Howard faced off against Alton Clements in the EFI Renegade semifinals, and this was the result. If you can believe it, this 8-second racecar is driven all the time on the street here around the Columbus area where Howard lives. From what we understand, he's been taking the car on trips out to dinner and the movies lately. It's truly one of the nicest '86 Mustangs we've seen on the racetrack. Clements took the win over Howard.

The AFCO Drag Radial final round was over before it started. Although in this photo it looks like Jason Lee got the holeshot, in fact Andy Manson jumped the beams, handing Lee an easy win and solidifying his points lead. Bowling Green sure will be interesting, as it is a double-points event.

In the semifinal round of Hot Street, Mike Curcio took nearly a tenth on the tree against an uncommonly-late Charlie Booze, Jr. However, on the top end of the track, Booze powered around Curcio's car with an 8.67 to Curcio's 8.82 hit. Booze will face Robbie Blankenship in the final round.

Phil Hines was supposed to face off against Kenjo Kelley in the semis, but Kelley was unable to get his car fired up. Hines held up and gave Kelley every chance to get fired up, until he was finally given the signal from the starter that the race had become a single. Class act by Phil!

And....that's it, folks. The rain has moved in and we are not able to complete the event. All eliminators left to finish - RS, PS, FS semis, and all finals except DR (which ran today) - will be run during the qualifying sessions in Bowling Green, Kentucky, from September 29-October 2.