TOP FUEL

The qualifying for Top Fuel was as follows: (1) John Wiebe, 6.12 at 208.32 mph; (2) Don Garlits, 6.14 at Top Speed of the Meet 240.00 mph; (3) Larry Dixon in the "Real Don Steele" car, 6.14 at 204.54; (4) Gaines Markley, 6.14 at 227.27; (5) Dale Funk in the "English, Frakes and Funk" car, 6.18 at 231.36; (6) Jim Walther in the "Nationwise Rod Shops" car, 6.19 at 223.83; (7) Marvin Schwartz, 6.21 at 223.32; (8) Jeb Allen, 6.22 at 221.12; (9) Grant Stoms, 6.23 at 227.27; (10) Jim Bucher's Chevy, 6.24 at 221.66; (11) Billy Campbell in the "Golddigger" car, 6.25 at 225.00; (12) Ronnie Martin, 6.25 at 222.76; (13) Jr. Kaiser in the "Kaiser Bros." car, 6.28 at 217.38; (14) Gary Beck, 6.28 at 198.66; (15) 19-year old Charles Greer, 6.29 at 219.50; (16) Sarge Arciero, 6.31 at 213.28; (17) Bill Pryor, 6.33 at 207.84; (18) Don Souter, 6.36 at 215.82; (19) "Cha-Cha" Muidowney, 6.38 at 223.88; (20) Ted Wolf in the "Jim & Allison Lee" can 6.39 at 225.00; (21) Bruce Walker in the Childs and Walker "Addict", 6.42 at 215.82; (22) Roger Toth, 6.44 at 193.96; (23) Jim Grace in the "Pleasure Seekers" car, 6.45 at 201.67; (24) Flip Scho-field, 6.45 at 198.22; (25) Tony Ceroalo in the "Traveler" car, 6.46 at 209.30; (26) John Austin, 6.46 at 202.84; (27) Gary Ritter, in the "Blood, Sweat and Nitro" car, 6.47 at 220.04; (28) Larry Bucher, 6.47 at 196.06; (29) Tommy Ivo, 6.49 at 222.22; (30) Dale Thierer in the "Sparkling Burgundy" car, 6.52 at 128.57; (31) Chris Karamesines, 6.56 at 212.26; and (32) Hank Endres, 6.61 at 213.28.

The first round of Top Fuel took 3 1/2 hours to run, largely due to the excessive breakage that occurred on the round. The round started off with John Wiebe setting Low E.T. of the Meet and recording his first-ever 5-second run with a 5.98 at 217.38 in defeating Bill Pryor's up-in-smoke 6.25 at 182.54. Next, Bruce Walker took the "Childs and Albert" car to the victory over Dale Funk, who lifted slightly at half track, 6.21 at 230.76 to 6.24 at 214.78. Gary Beck then defeated Dale Thierer, 6.07 at 217.80 to an up-in-smoke 6.45 at 175.19. Ted Wolf won the next race when Gaines Markley lost fire on the burnout. "Cha-Cha' Muldowney then downed Larry Dixon on a hole-shot, 6.24 at 217.90 to 6.21 at 143.96. Jeb Alien then coasted to a win when Flip Schofield red-lighted due to brake failure. In the next match-up, Don Garlits was upset by Don Souter, 6.33 at 221.12 to 6.81 at 194.38, when Garlits was forced to lift coming off the line. Jim Bucher then drove his Chevy-powered digger to the win at 6.11 and 227.27 when John Austin's chute popped open before the lights. Jim Grace defeated Marvin Schwartz on a hole-shot, 6.52 at 206.42 to a shut-off 9.35. Larry Bucher past up Ronnie Martin's hole-shooting effort when Martin went up in smoke, 6.35 at 184.04 to 6.74 at 196.50. Grant Stoms eased to his victory as his opponent, Tony Ceroalo lost fire on the line. Gary Ritter then laid a tremendous hole-shot on Billy Campbell to take the win, 6.41 at 227.00 to a quicker 6.35 at 227.82. On the-next run, both Jim Walther and Roger Toth both had problems, with Toth blowing his engine at about ¼-track and Walther's chute popping out at mid-track. Walther was awarded the win when he coasted through first, 8.35 to 8.89. Jr. Kaiser then overpowered Tommy Ivo, 6.24 at 213.28 to 6.40. Charles Greer defeated Chris Karamesines, who blew at the top end, 6.36 at 223.32 to 6.42. Closing out the round, Sarge Arciero singled as opponent Hank Endres couldn't light upon the fire-up road.

The second round opened with Wiebe downing Stoms, 6.05 at 210.28 to a surprising 6.08 at 232.55. Then, Walther defeated Gary Beck, who blew his engine near mid-track, 6.19 at 228.42 to 6.58 at 169.49. Bucher then defeated Souter, 6.05 at 233.00 for the potent Chevy to 6.40 at 207.36. Following this, Ted Wolf dropped Larry" Bucher, 6.31 at 227.27 to 6.49 at 212.26. Walker then defeated Kaiser at 6.26 at 215.30. Greer defeated Grace, 6,48 at 229.00 to 6.61 at 227.84. In the next race, a surprisingly strong Muldowney out-powered Ritter, 6.09 at 239.36 to 6.44 at 206.88. To close out the round, Jeb Allen recovered from a Sarge Arciero hole-shot and took the win, 6.14 at 228.42 to 6.24 at 232.55.

That brought on the very confused round three action. When the first call went out, only Wiebe, Jim Bucher and Wolf showed up on time, due to the fact that the 45-minute cool down period had been started at the beginning of the second round instead of the end, and one breakage had caused a twenty-minute delay. Wiebe singled at 6.06, and then Bucher dropped Wolf with a 6.09 at 229.00. But then, Muldowney, Walker, Greer and Jeb Alien showed up for staging, and after some intense discussion, were allowed to run. First, Greer defeated Muldowney, 6.22 to 6.40, and then Jeb Allen red-lighted, handing the win to Walker at 6.12 and 218.
Round four opened with Wiebe singling again at 6.48 and 219.50. Following this, they had Wolf re-run Bucher, and this time, Wolf won at 6.42 as Bucher had to shut off early. Then, Walker defeated Greer in a very close race.

On the following round, Wiebe, sat and watched as Wolf and Walker met to see who would meet him in the final. Walker won with a 6.57 at 220.04 over Wolf's shutting-off 7.02. However, Walker had hurt his motor on the run.

On the final, Walker brought the ailing "Addict" digger to the line to ensure the runner-up spot. On the green light, Walker shut off at the line, allowing Wiebe to single for the victory.

FUNNY CAR

Since there were only 21 Funny Cars that showed up for the race, everybody that was there automatically made eliminations. Consequently, qualifying became simply a matter of determining positions in the elimination ladder. The highlight of qualifying was Don Prudhomme's fantastic 6.19 shot that put him at the head of the pack.

By virtue of his low qualifying position, Prudhomme opened up the first round with a single, easing in at 183 mph yet still managing an incredible 6.31. Then, Bob Palmer shut off the "Bad Habit" car, allowing Bill Leavitt to single in the "Quickie Too" at another shut-off 179.64. On the next race, Charles Lee put a sizable hole-shot on an out-of-shape Kosty Ivanoff, taking the win 7.10 at 197.36 to 7.06 at 212.76. McEwen then disposed of Bruce Burkhardt in the "U.S. Marines" entry, 6.88 at 194.00 to 7.22 at 183.28. Pat Foster then took John Lombardo's car to the win over Tony Wahley in the "Warlord", 6.45 at 200.00. Next, Don Schumacher drove his Lega to the win over Jimmy King with a 6.55 at 209.79. However, Schumacher broke on the run, allowing King to return on the next round. In the next race, Segrini met Hoover, with Segrini surging out in front when Hoover developed severe vibrations. However, Segrini's chute popped out at about %-track, allowing Hoover to take the match at 6.89 and 159.23 to Segrini's 7.42. The next race found Jim Nicoll unable to fire, allowing Tom Prock to single at 6.74 and 174.08. Following this was a tremendous crash involving Barry Kelly in the "Machine Gun Kelly" car and Paul Smith in the "Fireball Vega". On the run, Smith was out in front, when Kelly caught fire at the %-track mark and lost his left rear tire. He then veered into the right lane, crashing into Smith in the lights. Kelly suffered minor injuries, while Smith suffered broken shoulders. After a long lull, Gene Snow downed Bob Mayer, 6.68 at 176.12 to 6.79 at 218.28. Concluding round one, Shirl Greer singled at 6.54 and 197.80 when Curtis Wasson failed to stage in the allotted ten seconds after Greer had staged.

Opening up round two, Prudhomme again demonstrated his clear dominance by going a 6.29 while slowing to only 186.72 in defeating Prock's 6.66 at 166.35. In the next race. Foster and Leavitt were both awarded singles, which they ran side by side, and both advanced to round three. Then, McEwen trailered Lee, 6.86-at 173.74 to 7.15 at 199.54. Greer then downed King, 6.52 at 187.50 to 6.65 at 216.86. On the final race of the round, Hoover met Snow, with Snow taking the win at 6.69 to Hoover's shut-off 7.38.

Round three opened with McEwen overtaking a hole-shooting Foster, Foster going 6.50 at 214.28 while McEwen went 227.07 mph but received no E.T. In the next race, Prudhomme dropped Greer, who shut off early when he saw there was no chance, with Prudhomme also recording no E.T. while slowing to 191.08 mph. On the final race of the round between Snow and Leavitt, Snow was unable to stage before the starter sent Leavitt off down the track to a 6.44 at 163.93 win.

That brought on the confusion as to who would receive the bye run, since neither McEwen nor Prudhomme had received an E.T. from the previous round. After some discussion, it was decided to give Prudhomme the bye on the strength of his low qualifying E. T. On the run between McEwen and Leavitt, both cars broke though Leavitt managed to coast through the traps first and was awarded the win. That left only Prudhomme to run for the final, which he refused to do, and instead he was simply awarded the win.