The latest update as of July 16, 2023

As the event header states, Mo-Kan Dragway is celebrating 61 years of racing at their facility near Asbury, MO. This year's second Nitro Chaos visit has pumped up the volume, both figuratively and literally, with Scott Palmer bringing not only his NHRA Top Fuel dragster, but the world's wildest Pro Mod, "Stude-Zilla" to the show. While the dragster was making solo passes, the blown fuel Pro Mod was match racing against J.R. Sandlian's "Bad Attitude"early model Camaro.

Unfortunately, Friday's planned qualifying sessions were rained out, but the sun came out yesterday and they completed all three rounds of qualifying. We've got a batch of photos from those rounds to post but they won't all be uploaded until tomorrow. With great weather here in Victoria, it's going to be a BBQ day with friends and some relaxation. But we'll get back to it tomorrow with full results and lots of visuals from the 2nd annual Nitro Chaos Drags at (Smokin') Mo-Kan Dragway.

It looks like today's eliminations will go ahead under hot sunny conditions and the second consecutive weather-affected Chaos event will be completed, albeit a day late. All the photos from eliminations will be posted on Tuesday. Stay tuned for that. For now, here's the photos from the first qualifying session. Details will be added tomorrow.

NITRO CHAOS Qualifying - Session #1

(LEFT) Leading off the session was the veteran team from Texas, the "Nitro Relapse" gang, with Terry Darby turning the wrenches and Aaron Morrow behind the wheel. Despite dropping a cylinder on the launch, Morrow posted a very good 4.160 - 176.13 to sit at the top of the leader board after the first pair.

(RIGHT) Facing Morrow in the other lane was the current World Fuel Altered champion, Mark Hunter in the Curt Wasson-owned "Jailbreak" entry. Leaving first and getting to the finish line first, despite a slightly slower e.t., Hunter rang up a solid 4.181 - 169.94 on the scoreboard. His 60' time of .991 was impressive too, and the gap at the finish line was less than a thousandth of a second.

(LEFT) Blazing across the starting line on the burnout, the beautiful "Showtime" entry of Donnie Massey prepped the tires before his first qualifying pass. On the run he left the line hard with a sub 1-second short time, before stopping the clocks at 3.971 at an early shutoff 154.59 mph.

(RIGHT) In the other lane, Funny Car Chaos regular Chuck Loftin dropped at least one cylinder on the launch and lumbered down the track to a 4.492 - 144.83 on his first attempt.

(LEFT) The first late model rear-engine injected nitro dragster in the field, "The Bull", owned by Canadian Cliff Bakx, and driven by North Dakotan Todd Bruce, continued their assault on the Nitro Chaos tour. Leaving quickly with an .005 reaction time and .948 time to 60', the car started moving from side to side before Bruce shut it down to a 4.108 - 154.59.

(RIGHT) In the other lane, the all black "Mass Chaos AA/Fuel Altered of John Umlauf was able to keep the throttle open all the way to the 660' stripe, with a 4.118 - 184.05 lighting up the scoreboard.

(LEFT) Coming up to Mo-Kan with the "take no prisoners" "War Machine", the world's fastest fuel altered (304 mph at the Texas Motorplex last year), Kebin Kinsley (near lane) left like a rocket, putting up a .910 time in 60' and keeping the loud pedal down until near the finish line, stopping the clocks with the first 3-second pass of the event, at 3.682 - 186.26 to take the top spot on the ladder. In the far lane, the "Nitro Clown" dragster of Joseph Gallegos wasn't too far behind at 4.057 - 194.97, but his late leave left him well behind at the stripe.

(RIGHT) This next pair turned into a single for Matt Sackman (near lane) in one of the Randy Meyer Racing team cars. His opponent, Anthony Whitfield (far lane) in the blown fuel small-block Chevy altered lurched into the staging beams, turning on both bulbs before Sackman had pre-staged, then sat there as the "Mighty Mouse" lost fire. Sackman launched well but shut off very early to the tune of a 4.167 - 122.35 timeslip.

(LEFT) There was trouble in both lanes when the "Bushwhacker" fuel altered of Jody Austin (far lane) went into instant tire smoke on the green, shutting off immediately to a 15-second time. Not faring much better was Gary Wheeler Jr. as the Oklahoma digger started hopping on the launch before shutting down to a 6.77 - 84 mph clocking.

(RIGHT) This looked like a major mismatch as an injected small-block Chevy dragster, driven by Paul Schultz (far lane) faced off against the Big Show "Fuelish Addiction" Funny Car of Dusty Hunt. Both cars ran into trouble, with Schultz labouring all the way down before stopping the clocks at 6.674 - 122.45. Hunt got the flopper off the line well but was off the throttle just past the 330' mark, with a 4.623 - 110.24 result for his efforts.

(LEFT) A pair of injected nitro burners faced off next, with Chase Copeland (not visible in the far lane) in his altered, against another Randy Meyer car, this one driven by daughter Rachel Meyer. The 2021 NHRA Top Alcohol champion absolutely bombed the timers with low e.t. and top speed at 3.617 - 221.89 to show everyone that she was ready to rock the Mo-Kan field. Copeland ran hard to the 330' mark before lifting and slowing to a 4.266 - 121.33, that grabbed a spot near the top of the "B" field.

(RIGHT) The south Texas fuel racer, Mitch King, brought out the "Bone Shaker" and ran into trouble right away as it broke on the launch and pulled to a stop over by the guardrail. Not shown in the other lane was Tod Barker who fought his injected fuel funny car all the way down the track to a 4.357 - 146.48 set of numbers.

(LEFT) The eighth AA/Fuel altered to run in the session became the third to break into the 3-second zone. James Gilliland in the "Psycho Too" laid down a great 3.864 - 196.08 time to take the #3 spot in the "A" field and become the quickest altered after the "War Machine" of Farris & Kinsley. Gilliland's speed was the second fastest of the session as he fell just short of the 200-mph mark.

(RIGHT) Expected to challenge for the top spot in the field, Megan Meyer in the third Randy Meyer Racing car, had the car lurch off the line and nearly come to a halt just past the 60' clocks before it opened up and blasted down the track to a 194.81 mph speed, but coupled with a decidedly off-pace 7.75 elapsed time. That placed her in the #17 spot at the conlusion of the session and just outside the "B" field bump spot. However, with two more sessions remaining, that situation was almost certain to change.

NITRO CHAOS Qualifying - Session #2

You could call this group of photos "Chute Shot Saturday" as our photog, "BIG" Bob Snyder, always loves to station himself at the far end for one session and get some great closeup pics of cars slowing, but still moving at speed, in the shutdown area. The light was pretty good for photography down at the end of the track in the late afternoon too.

(LEFT) After a problematic 6.77 pass in the first round of qualifying, the Brook & Wheeler team were looking for much more from their AA/Fuel Dragster. They certainly picked up the pace as driver Gary Wheeler Jr. posted a great 3.993 - 176.68 to jump up to #5, in the middle of the "A" field. Racing him was Tod Barker, who's injected fuel flopper lost fire on the burnout and was pushed back behind the line.

(RIGHT) Looking for a shot at the top of the field, Megan Meyer did just that, breaking into the 3.50's with a top qualifying 3.594 - 223.66 to push everyone back one spot. Barely visible in the other lane, far from the finish line, Chuck Loftin wasn't able to improve on his first session 4.49 pass and dropped one spot to #15 on the ladder.

(LEFT) Running alongside another Fuel Altered, John Umlauf was looking to step up from his earlier 4.118 effort, but fell short by a tenth with a decent but not better 4.210 - 182.41 pass.

(RIGHT) Following his failure to get off the starting line in the first go-round, Anthony Whitfield pushed the "Mighty Mouse" to a near 3-second e.t., but fell just short with a very good 4.055 - 166.79 to vault into the middle of the "A" field in the #5 spot, and in the process, push Umlauf out of the top eight, to the #9 position, atop the "B" field.

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NITRO CHAOS Qualifying - Session #3 (FINAL)

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(RIGHT) Billed as a "Saturday Night Callout", the "grudge" match between the Meyer sisters, with Rachel Meyer in the near lane, and Megan Meyer in the far lane, turned into a pedalfest as both drivers lit the tires off the line, then whomped the throttle a few times enroute to side-by-side 7-second 70-mph runs. Getting the glory was Megan as she managed to turn on the winlight.

(LEFT) Following a strong burnout, the "Fuelish Addiction" funny car of Dusty Hunt was forced to shut down due to an oil leak and lost his final chance to get into the show. As qualifying ended, the team sat in the #18 spot, nearly half a second short of the 4.217 bump spot for the "B" field.

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