Friday at the YellowBullet.com Nationals

View fullsize

Friday has come and gone, along with the first round of qualifying in all classes. To say that there were jaw dropping numbers Friday night would be an understatement. Personal bests and times that got the crowd on their feet at Cecil County Dragway!

For most of the early day on Friday we saw a lot of testing, which was the plan to begin with. There was nothing that happened in testing that would lead you to believe that we would see amazing performances tonight. Numbers like a shocking 4.70 in Ultra Street and two 3.78's in Pro Mod. We also saw at least one heavy hitter already have to pack up for the weekend. 

In the 8.50 there were a total of 57 cars making a qualifying hit, with both John Flood & Jim Dayotas ran perfect 8.500 passes, but John did it first so he takes the #1 qualifier. It is a 32 car field and it appears that 8.50 regular Mike Pyott is on the bump spot at 8.737.

In Top Sportsman there were 31 cars that made a hit on Friday night. Number one qualifier was Michael Kaufman at 4.191, while number 31 was John Prime with a 6.717. As of right now it appears that this is going to be a 16 car field. We will see if that stays or if it becomes an all run field. 

Outlaw 10.5 had an astonishing 30 cars in it on Friday night. Now this is actually a mix of 10.5 cars and RvW radial cars. Coming in at the top was Joe Albrecht and his GTO, with John Salemi helping out on the car. Joe ripped off a solid  4.019 for the top spot. At number 30 is Tim Essick at 8.711. The track was certainly tricky for anyone on radials in this class. There aren't many on radials, but the top radial qualifier is Paul Major in his Corvette at number 12. The next radial car is Shawn Ayers driven, Fletcher Cox owned Mustang at number 20 on the sheet. 

Let's talk Pro Mod. Yep that's right, the YB Nats has 1/8th mile Pro Mod. Sitting at the top is Mean Dean Marinis and his Corvette, which in all honesty looks like a piece of art. Dean blasted to a 3.784 at 199. Right on Dean's heals is NHRA superstar and 2015 PDRA Pro Boost Champion Kevin "Flash" Fiscus. Kevin dropped the hammer and clicked off a 3.789 at by far and away the highest mph of the event at 210 mph. Chris Rini is right behind those two with a 3.793. This should be one hell of a dog fight the rest of the event. 

Moving over to the radial side, we had two dedicated radial classes. X275 and Ultra are the only radial based classes this weekend. In X275 there were 34 cars to make passes in a 32 car field. Sitting atop is Cecil County regular and long time X275 driver Ron Rhodes. He set the pace with a 4.426, followed very close by the Bruder Brothers Mustang which stopped the clocks at 4.432.

The last class of the night was Ultra Street, and if you are looking for the "Where did that come from" numbers, this is where you  find them. Number one qualifier was Shawn Pevlor with a head shaking 4.700 at 150.25. I would love to tell you that someone else was close but that isn't the case. In the number two slot is the one and only N/A Mafia OG Alex "All Motor" Hays at 4.774. Rounding out the 16 car field in Charlie Booze with a solid 5.096.

We did has a causality today though. Radial heavy hitter David DeMarco and his DMC Racing built Buick Grand National has catastrophe engine failure, and in turn ended his weekend before he could bring it up  for Q1.