Boone and I stood at the door watching the bracket race despite a gap in the line to the next group of waiting racers, who were watching the race in a similar fashion at the next suite. 32 real street cars, all dialed between 10.00 to 11.46, makes for a very entertaining race, especially considering the diversity of cars. The sixteen pairs actually went by pretty quickly, taking only twelve and a half minutes from first pair in the water box to last pair through the traps, with both Lohnes and Freiburger imploring the winners to get right back to the lanes to be paired again.

Clark Strong's 69 Road Runner, on the strength of his 11.501 last ditch qualifying run, was the #32 Qualifier, and one of only two no-bar cars that made the field. He was saddled with an 11.46 dial, but was only legal to run 11.50; despite that disadvantage, he managed to hit the tree, and run an 11.57 for the first round win.

John treed his opponent, but the Valiant spun hard and he was just able to get the stripe, but only ran 11.04 on his 10.85 dial, despite a DW best 122 mph.

While most of the Mopars were well above their dial-ins, James Reeves in the little black GLH destroyed his, and lost on a break-out 10.46 to his 10.69 dial, despite a healthy amount of brake pedal in the last 100 feet.

Last year, Ryan Anderson's 08 Grand Cherokee SRT8 was well on it's way to a 12 flat average and a spot in the quick 32 when it broke on Friday and limped to a 31.60 time slip to end the week. Whatever was broke on the Hemi powered SUV, he fixed it REALLY GOOD! This year he came into the bracket race with a 10.85 dial, and a couple of 130+ mph passes on the week.
Unfortunately, he was paired with #1 qualifier Adalie Ross in the 63 Falcon wagon, and she ran just .005 over her dial to push Ryan under his, to a 10.78-129 losing effort.

The last pair was Jason Trotter's 87 Shelby Daytona, with it's unreal 140mph top end charge against Dan Smith's battered and bruised Chrysler 300.
"What'ya think?" Boone asked.
"I wouldn't want to be bracket racing against Dan...with a front drive, turbo charged 4 cylinder, and a stick...but that's just me".
"...and Dan gets a clean tree, leaving first", Boone added
"Yeah, double whammy!"
The 10.67-139.3 was well under Jason's 10.78 dial, but he was done in at the starting line, a pro tree combined with wheel spin usually means you left second.