In a bit of a departure from our usual presentation of the elimination results, we're going to present them in chronological order -- not by class. In an even bigger departure from the norm, we're going to include some of the nitro and alcohol funny car results too. No, it's not going to be a regular feature in our event coverage, but since we were there and took lots of notes, we may as well include those classes.

1:00 pm  The skies are still threatening as the FM/FC's start the serious qualifying proceedings. First out of the lanes are Randy Parker and Bucky Austin, two of the Northwest's best. Let the performance party begin!

Parker lays down an excellent opening lap, picking up right where he left off at Mission Raceway last weekend: solidly in the low 5.8-'s. Austin has some major excitement as he shakes hard on the launch, heads for the wall and shuts off to a 10-second time.

Bateman gets his weekend off to a rocky start, with some hard tire shake, but he recovers nicely to put a decent speed up on the boards. Thompson suffers most of the same maladies, but hasn't got the horsepower to stay with the Canadian car.

Austin lays down an awesome pass in just the third pair of this first session, with very little shake. A nearly flawless pass to jump into the top spot by a bunch. Clough runs into tire shake, pedals, nearly shuts off, then gets on it again long enough to presumably gather some data for later.

This is the third consecutive pair with a Canadian car involved. Evanchuk's beautiful "Red Wolf" car train lengths Patton with a good opening pass, both ends of which are near his career bests. After a tremendous burnout, Patton launches to a so-so lap in his first attempt on the SIR surface.

The very powerful car of the Miner Brothers shuts off at half track for no apparent reason; it was running strong until that point. Marx doesn't launch very hard, but comes on strong in the mid-range and pulls hard to the finish line for a very respectable result.

Longtime Northwest match racer Forrest LeBlanc lays down one of the best burnouts of the session, but gets into trouble early on his pass, crossing the centerline at the 400 foot mark, takes out both half track cones and disqualifies his pass. McGlone launches into hard tire shake and luckily is already shut off when LeBlanc crosses into his lane. We'll be down for a few minutes as the Safety Safari replaces the damaged timing reflectors.

"Froggy" Knox makes a very decent opening pass; one of his best in recent memory, while California hitter Gordon shakes and shuts off before half track.

The "Dreamweaver" car is the 15th and last car to make this session, so he's on a single. I haven't seen any more cars in the pits, so it looks like we've got a short field unless we have some late arrivals this evening. Weaver starts his lap in the left lane, fails to put on his turn signal and skates into the right lane at 500 feet, taking the half track speed cone with him. No times recorded as his run is disqualified.

That's one of three qualifying sessions in the books for the alky floppers, with only two cars (Pat Austin, Randy Parker) in the fives, three more in the 6.0's, two in the 6.1's, a 6.2, 6.8, 6.9, etc. Only twelve valid timeslips in total. Bring on the dragsters!

We've barely got enough dragsters to make a full field: four A/Fuel cars and twelve blown alky cars. And we've only got fifteen cars in the lanes for this first session.

We start off with an A/Fuel vs. Blown Alcohol match, with the blown car getting to the finish first by a wide margin. Kim Parker makes a great pass to start proceedings, nearly equalling her career best, while Henkelman leaves hard, smokes the tires, gets way out of shape, and nearly crosses the centerline before shutting off. Whew. This could be an exciting session if the first pair is any indication.

Two blown cars now, but the differences in combinations (and performance potential) are huge. Shields train lengths Cofini by half track, but shuts off very early with no apparent problems. Cofini looks slow by comparison, but still runs a season best. We find out later that Shields had no high gear and was forced to shut off.

This is the first time down the SIR track for Mike (not that Mike) Austin. In honour of this, the sun makes a sudden appearance for the first time today. Excellent opening passes for both cars, with career bests for Austin and a career best speed for Edwards. Trivia note: the last time the cylinder heads on Edwards' car went down a drag strip was 1983.

The A/Fuel car of Brown leaves hard, but drops two (or more) cylinders at 800 feet and slows. Grocock's car is in trouble right away and he shuts off very early.

Federlin is in front of the injected nitro car of Baca until the 1000 foot mark, when the power of the Baca & Strasser car takes over and he blows past to take low e.t. and top speed after the fifth pair of cars. Baca's car is sluggish off the line, but really starts charging at half track.

Too bad they didn't leave together (staggered starts). This would have been a great drag race. Hentges hugs the centerline, while Hough is straight and true to a new low e.t. of the session.

In a big surprise, Santos smokes the tires, while Bernstein smokes the field, with the first "30" of the weekend. A near career best for the "Bud Prince" and bottom of the field for the world champ. Note: We find out later that Bernstein's car is too light at the scales and his run is disqualified.

We finish up this first session with a single, as the 16th car (Bernie Plourd) is still in the pits being putting together. Jones makes a very strong sounding pass and the scoreboard confirms it with a career best e.t. and speed.

That's it for a few hours, with Hough on top at 5.42, Edwards in the middle (#8) at 5.67 and Santos on the bottom (#14) at 11.66. The A/Fuel cars ran 5.37 (later disqualified), 5.55, 5.70 and 8.70, so there's no real sign of their dominance yet.

It's 2:00 pm and we're back into Sportsman racing for an hour or so until the nitro cars take to the center stage.

3:30 pm:  As we sit watching the Pro Stock cars go through their paces, the clarion call rings out over the p.a. system: "Funny Cars to the staging lanes". Good news: the nitro's getting closer.

After a shaky start to their session, the Pro Stocks started laying down very good numbers, breaking both ends of the track record in the process, but what about the fuelers? Can they successfully negotiate the "ski hill" or the "rapids" and put the big numbers up on the scoreboards? The nitro floppies are up first: Let the thunder begin....

Haddock's on a single due to his lack of recent runs at national events. He pedals it once, hits it again and thunders through. Decent speed, weak e.t.

Here's a pair of guys that have been struggling all season, especially Toliver, who's still looking for his first round win of the year. It's a good lap for the WWF car, but there's lots of smoke at the finish line. Etchells also emits some smoke, but at the 800 foot mark instead and he shuts off at that point.

Gilbertson puffs the tires early, pedals and saves the run. Gray smokes the tires harder, pedals and smokes some more, before giving up early.

Two wasted runs: Cannon is up in smoke at the hit, while Epler gives up the fight at half track. And the sweep trucks are chasing Cannon into the deep end. Looks like we're down for almost the first time today. Despite two cone bashings and one sweep job, the alcohol cars lost barely five minutes earlier today.

All the oil in Cannon's lane is past the finish line and isn't that heavy as we're up and running again in less than ten minutes.

Skuza's strong for 1000 feet, then starts mixing up cylinders and shuts off early. Densham's up in smoke before half track and shuts off.

We have a pair of solid runs here; The C-S-K car of Pedregon moves into the top spot on the ladder, while Junior Johnson hazes the tires on the top end and falls into the #5 spot.

Another new low e.t. as Capps gets down there very well. Pedregon smokes the tires early and shuts off at half track.

Bazemore gets close to the 300 mph mark (by the way, the track records are Bazemore at 4.87 and Cruz Pedregon at 308 mph). Worsham is with him until 1000 feet, then starts wobbling and shuts off.

We finish off this session with the best side by side passes of the round. Sarver has to wrestle the e-moola car, but keeps it inside the lines to move into the #2 spot on the ladder. Force ends up #6 on what looks like an easy opening pass.

After a rather lacklustre session of Funny Car, we're hoping the big boys can put some numbers on the boards and show us how it's done. But with only 16 cars in the pits (and fewer than that in the lanes for this session) we may go away wanting more... a lot more, from the Top Fuel gang.

We start off with a new car/rusty driver single. Smith hasn't run since crashing on his only pass of the season at Phoenix in February. This pass looks good until he torches a head gasket at half track and wraps the blower belt around the wing going across the finish line.

"Kid" Kalivoda make the first national event pass of his career. I'm surprised he's not on a single, but is lined up against veteran Tim Gibson. Kalivoda has at least one cylinder out right away, drops another at 300 feet and shuts off just past half track. Gibson, on the other hand, has no problems and puts down a decent pass with an early shutoff. Note: the blower belt off Gibson's car is being admired by the Safety Safari guys; guess that's why he "shut off".

Grubnic joins the belt-tossing brigade at half track. Are we seeing a rash of them today? Hartman shuts off at 300 feet, smoking the tires hard at that point.

Another pair; another tossed belt (Schumacher this time). Tire spin on the top end causes Herbert to pull the plug early on what was a good run for 1000 feet.

Dunn drops a cylinder and still puts the first 300 mph of the weekend on the scoreboard. Russell is right with him until half track, but shuts off soon after.

Team Winston bangs out a big number to take over the top spot. Looks like Alan Johnson is starting to get Scelzi's car on a bit of a roll. Kalitta's up in smoke and shuts off early. Hit and Miss: that's the story of this session.

All too quickly we've come to the last pair of the round. Sosenka, Bonin and Ron Smith have all elected to skip this first session, so we don't have a bubble yet, and with only sixteen cars in the pits we may not have one to write about.

Finally we get a side by side race, with Bernstein pulling ahead on the top end to bump Scelzi off the top rung on the ladder. Dixon lands in the #3 spot, and lays down one of only six 4-second runs in this session.

5:00 pm:  Whatever happend to Al Hofmann? We see him cruising up and down the return road on a minibike, so we know he's here. But what about the Jim Dunn "Mooneyes" flopper that he drives? We never saw it in the first session of nitro funny car. Guess it's time to make another round of the pits and find out. Oops, no time. Back to work as the second session of FM/FC is on tap.

Evanchuk has a problem and leaves before the tree is activated. He coasts for a while, then nails it and goes through at a high rate of speed (in a hurry to get back to the trailer and hide?). Patton steps up a bunch and moves into the top half of the field.

We've got a bit of cloud cover and a cool breeze and the cars are liking it. Gordon makes a huge move into the #2 spot, right behind Pat Austin, while Marx knocks off a tenth but just holds onto his #4 spot in the field.

McGlone gets back in his 5.80 groove of two weeks ago, and jumps into the #3 spot. LeBlanc stays in his lane this time, but shakes hard and gives up before half track.

Oh, oh. The safety safari is working on LeBlanc's lane, just off the starting line. Patiently waiting is a pair of Northwest regulars, seen often at Mission Raceway this season. Clough is looking to step up considerably from his opening 6.88, while Parker will probably he happy with another low 5.80 pass.

When we get going Parker has a handful; lots of tire shake and he's all over the track. Pretty good numbers considering all the problems. Clough picks up four tenths, but he's still well back in the field.

The "Showdown" car of Bateman is looking to get back into the 5.80 zone where they've been almost exclusively for the past two months. Knox leaves so early he's at half track before Bateman moves. Consequently, we have no time recorded for Knox, and Bateman is still stuck in the sixes, picking up only a hundredth to stay in the #9 spot.

To add injury to insult, Knox oils the braking area at the end of his wasted run. We'll be down for a bit while they clean it up.

We're back in just a few minutes. Thanks goodness for national event cleanup crews. Miner jumps into the #2 spot on a very strong run, less than a hundredth behind Pat Austin. Thompson tosses the blower belt at half track and slows. And we've got more "stuff" on the track, in Thompson's lane.

Now we're back to that ever popular and long-running Northwest serial: The Austin Family Feud. These guys have met each other literally hundreds of times over the years, and even they don't know what the score is by now. There's a bit of lead swapping in this matchup, until Pat gives up at half track, and watches Uncle Bucky jump into the #5 spot, just ahead of Randy Parker. Pat's still in the top spot, with only one pair to go in today's second and final session.

And it looks like a single to close the alky flopper show for the day. Weaver makes a nice pass and moves all the way up to the #3 spot after a less than satisfying opening lap. Now it's dragster time.

Biggest between rounds news was Bernstein having his first pass disqualified when he came up a few pounds light on the scales. With only 16 cars in the pits, and only 15 running at the moment, the disqualification will be academic as long as he can stage the car for a pass in this session.

Baca, even with a cylinder out, grabs the #1 spot, at least temporarily. Federlin steps up nicely (by nearly a tenth) to the #5 spot.... also temporarily.

We have a new number one qualifier, as Henkelman makes a clean strong run to take the top spot. Parker nearly repeats her earlier 5.69; possibly she's just run the best back to back pair of runs she's ever made.

David (Grocock) vs. Goliath (Hentges). Both are looking to step up. Hentges picks up .03 and moves into the #4 spot, while Grocock picks up one second, despite a very early shutoff, but he's still in the #11 spot.

Shields fires up the engine... and it dies. But the car hasn't moved yet, so the officials allow him to restart. It turns into a very good side by side pairing, with Santos taking the winlight despite a slower e.t. Shields takes over the top spot in the field, while Santos jumps to #4, pushing everyone else down a notch. He's still not quite on his game yet this weekend, but they're getting close.

Drama? We got drama! After years of trying, Hough pushes Mike Johnson's car into the 5.30's for the first time ever. And we have yet another new top qualifier. This is really getting good.

Jones spins the tires hard enough to tickle the rev limiter in first and second gear. Despite that, he's only two hundredths of a second slower than his first session career best 5.45 pass.

The "Bud Prince" closes out today's alky action with the third single pass in a row. (Due to lane allocations and no shows by Cofini, Plourd, Austin, Edwards and Brown). And we have another new top qualifier and a pair of personal bests for Bernstein. Wow. What a great session of alcohol qualifying. How are they going to top that tomorrow? Stay tuned....

7:00 pm:  Where's Al Hofmann? How about the head of the staging lanes, out first against Scotty Cannon in this second nitro qualifying session. The air is colling, the sun's getting lower, the shadows longer, i.e., the conditions are getting good. These nitro cars might really get with the program in this session.

This is a weird deal, with both cars stopping at the finish line. Cannon's up in instant tire smoke and shuts off, while "Atomic Al" bombs the blower at 200 feet and pulls to a clanking stop right in front of the media centre. The "bubble" stays at 6.76, while the cleanup crews go to work in both lanes.

We have a new track funny car speed record, courtesy of Pedregon, while Gray shows everyone both sides of his car before shutting off and saving it from a trip into the guardwall. Two pairs and two heart-stoppers; not all great performances, but heaps of excitement nonetheless.

Densham runs strong for 1000 feet, then starts mixing up the cylinders. Epler smokes the tires at 100 feet and shuts off.

Two more wasted passes; they cross the finish line nearly side by side, after shutting off together before half track. Obviously no help for either driver, but no pressure either as they're both in the field based on their first session runs.

The best side by side nitro pass of the day, so far. Both cars in the 4's and over 300 mph. Excellent stuff. And the nitro flames are starting to fill the night. It's not dark yet, but they're plainly visible as the sun nears the horizon.

Johnson lays down a solid pass while Bazemore lights the tires at 100 feet, gets out of shape and shuts off. We now have eight cars in the four second zone.

Why the heck are all the drivers talking about the rain tomorrow? Aren't they the least bit superstitious about invoking the "R" word? On the track: more tire smoke.

Force does the best nitro funny car burnout of the day, to the 300 foot mark, but it's a long ways from the days of old. Whatever happened to the long, side by side, smokies? Yeah, I know: too much fuel, money and sponsorship at stake.

It's hard to argue with the results, as Force lays down low e.t. and top speed of the day, missing the track e.t. record by .001 second, but taking the speed mark by nearly two mph. Only one more pair of floppers left in the lanes. Oops, almost forgot: Sarver smokes the tires and shuts off.

Ho hum. Another pair of four second passes. We now have ten cars in the magic zone, but the bubble is still 6.71 at the end of day one. Next up: Top Fuel Dragsters.

7:25 pm:  We're running well ahead of schedule, so the sun isn't even close to setting yet and we won't get the full effect of the nitro flames in this session.... unless we have one major oildown right away. Here comes Ron Smith with his very low-buck local car; maybe we'll have our wishes answered.

Smith launches, shakes, shuts off; but he's in the field as we still don't have a bubble, and we only have 16 cars in the pits.

Here's a major blast from the past: "240 Gordie" Bonin vs. Mr. Magoo. This is Bonin's first pass this year. He leaves decently but is fighting for control at half track and pulls the pin before the 1000 foot mark. Sosenka is set up even softer and gives up just past half track. Again, both cars are in the show, but we do finally have a bump spot, with Smith's 11.113 holding down the basement.

We've got oil in Bonin's lane; maybe that led to his control problems. To fill the downtime, Glen Braid brings the CFMI Rock 101 girls out to the starting line.

Kalitta smokes 'em, while Schumacher lays down a decent pass. "Better than sex, baby" is the Rock 101 girl's summation of this pair. Hmm, sounds like she needs a new boyfriend.

Grubnic puts down a good one, with lots of smoke at the finish line. Hartman rotates the earth for 60 feet, with an .826 short time, but is up in smoke soon after and shuts off at 300 feet. Yep, we've got oil in Grubnic's lane. And the cool breeze is getting downright cold.

Two Washington state drivers duke it out for local bragging rights. Veteran Smith against rookie Kalivoda. Brady tries hard, but the blower belt cries "enough" on the fourth pedal, and he runs out of power at half track. Smith goes 100 feet, smokes the tires and coasts the rest of the quarter mile.

A pair of very nice passes. Herbert blasts into the #3 spot, with a new top speed of the meet 317 mph. Russell trails by three car lengths at the finish line and holds down the #8 spot.

Dixon takes the top spot away from Bernstein and nearly eclipses Herbert's top speed. Dunn, meanwhile, is up in smoke early. We're down to one pair of cars in the lanes now; can they possibly top some of this great string of runs we've witnessed in the last twenty minutes?

Did we save the best for last? Count to four.... and a half... and we'll see. Yes, we certainly did, with a new track record and #1 qualifying pass by Scelzi. Bernstein is no slouch and moves back into the #3 spot as he nearly matches Scelzi until the Team Winston car pulls away in the last few hundred feet.

Wow. Side by side 4.50's and one of the quickest passes of the year in the last pairing of the night. Unreal. What an ending to a great day of qualifying. Let's hope for better, or just a repeat of today's action, tomorrow.

"Brad Hadman: You're needed in Brandon Bernstein's pit area a.s.a.p." rings out over the p.a. system. Hmm... could be a long night in the offing at Progressive Metalcraft, just down the road from SIR in Tacoma. As the large audience heads en masse for the parking lots and home, we head for the pits to meet up with our roommates and our transportation back to the motel. Looks like we've got a long night ahead of us too, posting all these results and reports on the website. See ya tomorrow.