The latest update as of May 30, 2023

We're presenting the photos and results from last weekend's "(Double) Chaos In The Cornfield" event at Eddyville Raceway Park in a somewhat inverted, reversed, upside down, inside out order. Our first posting from the event was chronological, showing the test session from Friday night. Then we fast forwarded to the final rounds from Sunday evening. Now we've got the two qualifying sessions from Saturday, for both the Funny Car Chaos and Nitro Chaos competitors.

Next, we'll post the semi-final rounds from Sunday afternoon, then, after a one-week break while we go wine touring in the Okanagan Valley (BC), we'll be back with the final qualifying session and first round eliminations from Sunday. It doesn't quite make sense but when we post the full event on our Features page, we'll have everything in the correct order. The captions will be filled in throughout this evening, but we may not get them all done before we leave for our road trip.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Qualifying Session #1

(LEFT) Kicking off qualifying with his "Twist 'N Shout" entry, Neil Girot launched slowly but kept the pedal down and stopped the timers with a decent 4.722 - 160.89 to put the first set of numbers on the board.

(RIGHT) Running what appeared to be the ex-Doug Schneider "Milliken Monster", newcomer to the series, Jesse Clark left hard before lifting early as the car got out of shape, but still stopped the clocks with a solid 4.299 at only 127.05 mph. In the far lane, and partially obscured was Mike Buchanan in his fmiliar "Hombre" Vega who put down a 4.833 - 143.27 pass.

(LEFT) The next pair featured blown alcohol against injected nitro, with Jim Chase and his '57 Chevy-bodied "Wicked Quick" running strong to the finish line with a 4.366 - 179.28 effort.

(RIGHT) His opponent, NHRA Top Alcohol regular Julie Nataas in the still unwrapped A/Fuel Funny Car hesitated at the starting line, then went into immediate tire smoke and coasted to a 9.395 - 53.73 time.

(LEFT) Launching strongly enroute to the quickest run of the first four pairs, Steve Timoszyk in the beautiful Monza-bodied "Detroit Tiger" lit up the scoreboards with a 4.237 - 173.88 to put everyone on notice that he was ready to compete.

(RIGHT) A pair of blown alky Hemi-powered cars came up next, with the Mustang-bodied "Brutus", driven by Chris Schneider (near lane) was matched against the Ford Crown Victoria-bodied "Firefighter" of Colorado's Tony Arcuri. Schneider left first and drove it hard to the finish line with the first 4-teen of the day, a very good 4.178 - 171.89 to jump to the top of the list. Falling back just a little was Arcuri who stopped the clocks with a decent 4.398 - 166.05 to land in the #4 spot after the first five pairs of the session.

(LEFT) The FCC series champion from 2022, Kirk Williams, brought his all-conquering "200 Proof" to the line next, with everyone expecting the first 3-second run of the day. Staging with the revs way up, he launched hard but was smoking the tires at the 60' mark and headed towards the centerline before lifting and idling down the track to a 8.494 - 52.31 pass.

(RIGHT) Aiming to be the first into the 3's was the blown fuel Firebird-bodied "Nitro Psycho" of Texan Chuck Loftin, but he dialled into too much power, and/or clutch, and heading skyward on the launch then towards the guardrail before lifting and coasting to a 7.820 - 65.23. Not shown was the car in the other lane, making his first appearance at an FCC event in two years, as Robbie Massey in his Top Alcohol Funny Car blasted to a 3.853 - 191.57 to set the new low e.t. of the session.

(LEFT) It started looking like the left (near) lane was contributing to wheelies as Tom Furches in the "Made In America" Corvette brough the wheels up to start his run. He brought the front end down quickly but slowly drifted toward the centerline before shutting off to a 4.823 at 104.97 mph. In the far lane, the Mach I Mustang-bodied "Pony Up" entry of Danny Mann waited at the line before launching solidly and putting a 4.575 - 153.06 on the ladder.

(RIGHT) It was a case of "Double Thunder" next as Monty Stotz in his beautiful blue "Blue Thunder" Camaro (near lane) matched up against the "Ballew Thunder" Camaro of Jordan Ballew (far lane). Stopping the clocks first was Jordan Ballew with a solid 4.344 - 160.31, while Monty Stotz trailed only slightly with a good 4.424 - 150.70 effort.

(LEFT) Getting seriously sideways on the burnout, the "Atomic Punk" Camaro of Washington state's Don Knoblauch got straightened out before making his run. Still being tuned by "Big Show" nitro Funny Car racer Jeff Diehl, the Punk put down a solid early shutoff effort of 4.299 - 138.67 to take the #5 spot on the list at that point.

(RIGHT) Facing Knoblauch in the near lane was NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car racer, Lance Van Hauen, in the "Van Hauen Bros." car. Lance pounded out a #2 qualifying 3.910 - 185.49 pass to take a firm hold on a spot in the "A" field.

(LEFT) Competing in his third FCC event in his first year on the tour, Mississippi's Michael Neal in his Nova-bodied "Burnin' Love entry turned a 4.771 - 147.25 to sit near the bottom of the "B" field at this point in the session.

(RIGHT) A beautiful addition to the FCC circuit this season is the Camaro-bodied "The Gambler" of Casey Geeslin. He made a strong run but didn't receive a timeslip as his opponent, Shayne Lawson in the "Man O' War II" (not shown), took out the finish line timing blocks. Lawson did stop the timers with a 3.76 - 202 mph, but that was thrown out with his boundary violation.

(LEFT) Launching a little early (note the redlight), Connecticut's Wayne Hofmann punched out a good 4.279 - 166.67 in his Dodge Omni-bodied "China Syndrome" (near lane) to take the #6 spot on the ladder. Acing him out of the #5 spot was the (mostly obscured) "Mile-High Express" of Colorado's Steve Griboski who nearly dropped into the 3-second zone with a 4.018 - 185.19 that left him in the #3 position at the end of the session.

(RIGHT) A hard launch with the front wheels skimming the surface, the Corvette-bodied "The Executioner" of "Hot Rod Herbie" (Justin Herbst) put down a decent 4.466 - 162.22 to stake a claim for a spot in the "B" field in the #14 position.

The hard running NHRA Top Alcohol entry of Kansan Mike Newkirk lived up to its nickname "Disturbed" as that must have been what Newkirk was feeling after skating around at the 330' mark and taking out both the e.t. and mph timing blocks at the finish line. Even though a 4.09 - 151.57 showed up on the scoreboard, the times were thrown out for the centerline infraction.

And that put an end to the first qualifying session for the Funny Car Chaos racers. The "A" field numbers ranged from 3.853 (Robbie Massey) to 4.299 (Don Knoblauch), while the "B" field ran from Jordan Ballew's 4.344 to Danny Mann's 4.575. Finally, the "C" field e.t.'s started with Neil Girot's 4.722 to Dustin Bradford's 8.463. With four hard runners (Kirk Williams, Julie Nataas, Shayne Lawson, and Mike Newkirk) sitting below the #24 spot, the fields were certain to tighten considerably in the two qualifying sessions remaining.

NITRO CHAOS - Qualifying Session #1

After a very good first session of Funny Car Chaos qualfiying, the volume was cranked up LOUD when the first pair of blown fuel Nitro Chaos cars thundered through the waterbox and burned out to get their first qualifying session started.

(LEFT) Launching very hard with the header flames clearly visible in the afternoon, Dale Creasy Jr. (near lane) blasted off the line with an .891 time at the 60' mark, then lost traction at the 330' mark, but still crossed the finish line with a great 3.947 - 147.20 clocking. In the far lane, Mitch King had trouble staging the "Bone Shaker" and was timed out before launching, losing traction and shutting off with no time or speed recorded.

(RIGHT) Switching back and forth from Funny Car Chaos and Nitro Chaos, Levi Keenen opened his weekend with the Plymouth Arrow-bodied "Illinois Thunder" with a very good 4.068 - 181.74 in his short-stroke, 413-CID NHRA Heritage Series engine combination.

(LEFT) Making his return to Chaos competition after a long absence, Pennsylvania's Jim Gifford laid down a very hard burnout in his "Svengali" entry. When the ambers flashed, he didn't waste any time getting down the track, stopping the clocks with a 3.947 - 174.49 to slot into the #2 spot behind Dale Creasy by just a few ten thousandths of a second.

(RIGHT) It didn't take long for Creasy and Gifford to drop down the ladder, as it only took 3.887 seconds at just 157.78 for Joey Haas to put the Big Show-capable "Nimrod 2.0" to the top of the heap in the #1 spot.

(LEFT) And it didn't take very long for the #1 spot to go to Pete Dove as he drove the "Back From The Ashes" fuel altered to a new low e.t. of 3.642 - 193.38. Not shown was his opponent Jody Austin in his "Bushwhacker" fuel altered, who wasn't far behind at the finish line, carding an excellent 3.745 - 171.10 for the #2 spot on the list. A pair of great side-by-side passes by a pair of very hard running AA/Fuel Altereds.

(RIGHT) It was two blown fuel Funny Cars next, as Dave Hill in the Mustang-bodied "Mad Max" tried hard, but tire shake and dropped cylinders forced him to lift early and shut off to a 6.924 - 71.74 time. Mostly obscured in the far lane was the "Irish Car Bomb" of Tim Cullinan who made a full run, clocking in at 4.082 - 169.36. Then the fun started when only one chute came out, and late, as the car went off the end of the track into the cornfield. Thankfully, unlike Dave Gallegos's car-destroying excursion into the cornfield last year, Cullinan was able to get the car stopped early and it appeared that there was no damage to the Camaro-bodied entry.

(LEFT) It was a dragster, Dave Brown driving the "Beedy & Malloy" car (near lane) versus Anthony Whitfield in his small-block Chevy powered "Mighty Mouse" fuel altered in the far lane. Whitfield was up in smoke on the launch and coasted to a 7.179 - 56.19 clocking, while Brown got a little further before running into trouble and shuttin off early, carding a 4.833 - 127.80 time.

(RIGHT) Two of the four Randy Meyer Racing cars met in the next pairing, as the A/Fuel dragsters of Matt Sackman (near lane), driving the usually Julie Nataas driven "OTG" entry, blitzed the clocks with a great 3.727 - 174.08 to grab the #2 spot in the "A" field. In the far lane, Rachel Meyer ran hard to the 330' mark, before losing traction and slowing to a 4.442 - 117.55 in her "Rachel Meyer Racing" entry.

(LEFT) This looks like something out of the 'Twilight Zone' as the STREET-LEGAL '34 Ford coupe of Brian Kohlmann regularly runs in "Drag Week" competition on gasoline, and starts this beast on gas before switching over to nitro. He had trouble keeping the fire lit after the burnout, but got it staged, and launched hard before heading for the guardrail and lifting. The scoreboards read 7.380 - 80.14, but the crowd was more than impressed with the cool factor of the street driven hot rod.

(RIGHT) Things got very serious with the next pair as Todd Bruce driving the Cliff Bakx owned and tuned Canadian "The Bull" A/Fuel dragster, blasted down the track to a 3.618 - 216.35 clocking. The only thing keeping him from setting low e.t. and top speed was the car in the other lane (almost totally obscured). That was Megan Meyer, two time NHRA National Champion in Top Alcohol Dragster, who jumped all the way to #1 with a brilliant 3.595 - 221.57 effort. That moved the bump spot for the "A" field down to a 3.947 with two pairs remaining in the staging lanes.

(LEFT) Running strongly to the 330' mark before lifting, Joe Gallegos hustled the "Nitro Clown" AA/Fuel Dragster to a 4.225 - 148.71 timeslip that slotted him into the bottom half of the "B" field as the first qualifying session came to a conclusion.

(RIGHT) The last pair of the session featured Dusty Hunt in the "Fuellish Addiction" Funny Car getting out of shape and shutting off to a 5.078 - 95.24, while Gary Wheeler Jr. in the "Brook & Wheeler" AA/Fuel Dragster made it a little further down track before clicking it to a 4.551 - 112.44 to place him just outside the "B" field in the #17 position.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Qualifying Session #2

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NITRO CHAOS - Qualifying Session #2

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