LAS VEGAS — Saturday was a day of ET assaults and surprise runs at the COMP Cams Street Car Super Nationals 15 Presented by FuelTech.
Qualifying at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway wrapped up Saturday afternoon with the first round of eliminations beginning immediately after.
Ronnie Hobbs and his ’17 Mustang continued their hot streak with a 3.736-second run in E1 of Crower Radial vs. The World, beating his own qual-topping ET of 3.766 seconds set earlier in the day. The pass also set a new event radial tire record.
In Precision Turbo Pro Mod, Randy Merick’s 5.55 flat from Friday night was felled in dominating fashion by Justin Jones. Jones raced his 2018 Corvette to a blazing 5.518-second lap at 259.71 mph, more than enough to gain top qualifier honors.
Both Merick and Jones would advance to E2 on bye runs, with Jones losing traction early and wisely lifting to save his car during his pass.
One of the most entertaining pairings of the day occurred in the first round of No Time Big Tire when Gilly Bobby Hildrebrand and Joe Loch engaged in an old-fashioned burndown. For well north of a minute, the two cars remained motionless on the line. Loch finally broke the stalemate and staged first. Unfortunately, Hildebrand crossed the finish line first, taking the win light.
Hildrebrand, entered in multiple categories, also laid down a 3.935-second lap at 200.65 mph in a winning effort in MagnaFuel Outlaw 10.5 eliminations Saturday night. In addition, the time resets the class ET record.