What a night! Friday the 13th doesn't have anyting on 8/8/08 (LOL!) Eleven teams showed up to try their luck at the TOPMA crown and here's how everything unfolded after two rounds of qualifying:

#1 Doug Riesterer - 4.019 at 178 mph
#2 Ken Thomas - 4.108 at 176 mph
#3 Gene Hector - 4.257 at 164 mph
#4 David Baldwin - 4.440 at 159 mph
#5 Howard Brown - 4.554 at 156 mph
#6 Kevin Hargett - 4.698 at 156 mph
#7 Gaylen Smith - 4.794 at 131 mph
#8 Chuck Poindexter - 4.973 at 139 mph
#9 Randall Reid - 5.311 at 129 mph
#10 Rex Underwood - 5.559 at 98 mph
#11 Mike Bell - NT

First Round:

David Baldwin (W) 4.422 at 157 mph (.123 RT)
Howard Brown (RU) 4.563 at 155 mph (.182 RT)

This was Howard Brown in the leaner "Nuclear Frogs" first time out in 2008 and they were hoping for a better outcome but David Baldwin trailered the frog right off the bat. Welcome back Howard.

Gene Hector (W) 4.170 at 173 mph (.285 RT)
Kevin Hargett (RU) 6.647 at 81 mph (.073 RT)

Kevin was going for the cut throat hole shot win but shortly after take off Hargett disappeared into a cloud of bright white smoke. I didn't see the wild ride he went on but the clean up powder was a bunch of squiggly lines so I could only imagine what was going thru Kevin's mind as he kept the stang outta the wall and on all 4 tires after a transmission line broke spraying tranny fluid under his own tires.

Gaylen Smith (W) 5.165 at 140 mph (.038 RT)
Ken Thomas (RU) 13.006 at 43 mph (.064 RT)

After about an hour clean up right in front of this pair of cars, both cars lit the tires up at the hit. Not knowing where Ken was Gaylen peddled his way to the win.

Doug Riesterer (W) 5.139 at 118 mph (.055 RT)
Randall Reid (RU) 6.507 at 70 mph (.042 RT)

Randall filled in for a wounded Chuck Poindexter but this was also a peddlefest and Riesterer came out on top.

Semi finals:

Gene Hector (W) 4.204 at 161 mph (.035 RT)
Gaylen Smith (RU) 6.096 at 72 mph (.099 RT)

Gaylen still had traction troubles in the right lane while Gene seemed to be on a decent lap.

Doug Riesterer (W) 4.542 at 130 mph (.035 RT)
David Baldwin (RU) 4.750 at 120 mph (.035 RT)

Both cars were dead even off the line but Doug was able to peddle his way to the win.

Finals:

Gene Hector (W) 4.697 at 137 mph (.103 RT)
Doug Riesterer (RU) 8.173 at 62 mph (.145 RT)

"It wasn't pretty but it was a win and we'll take it any way we can get it" said one of the crew members of the "Small Block Mafia" team. Congrats to Gene and crew for your win and to Doug for you runner up finish.

Five teams that competed on Friday night got a couple of hours of sleep and then headed south on I-45 to Houston Motorsports Park for the Sudden Impact race there Saturday night.