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Final Eliminations (Day Four) at the 2019 Good Vibrations Motorsports March Meet (Bakersfield, CA)

Final Eliminations (Day Four) at the 2019 Good Vibrations Motorsports March Meet (Bakersfield, CA)

Here's the first round of eliminations for the Nostalgia Funny Cars, run in the late afternoon on Saturday. The #16 qualifier, Jim Maroney was unable to make the call with a destroyed body, and the first alternate (Cory Lee) was also "indisposed" so Bill Windham slotted in from the #18 position.

(LEFT) Filling in for the broken Jim Maroney, Bill Windham was so late in his first round match against Dan Horan that he wasn't even in the picture. That's what a .750 light will do. Horan didn't have a trouble-free run as his 6.067 - 243.02 was far off his low qualifying 5.665 effort. Windham wasn't much slower on e.t. at 6.095 but was waaaay behind at the stripe.

(RIGHT) The second pair of the first round saw a closer race as both racers ran into the 5's, with Kris Krabill (left side) taking the win at 5.793 - 252.14 over the late-leaving and slower Marc Meadors (right side) at 5.941 - 243.86.

(LEFT) Coming into this match with a sizeable performance advantage, Bobby Cottrell (right side) picked up the pace for the Austin & O'Brien car, blasting out a 5.642, coupled with a big speed at 257.24 to take the win over Tim Boychuk (left side), who laid down a solid 5.862 at a slowing 218.41 mph in the loss.

(RIGHT) The lone Canadian competitor in the field this year (as Boychuk is now an Arizona resident), and 2017 Heritage Series Champion, Ryan Hodgson came into the first round with a performance advantage over the rookie driver in the "Littlefield & Rupert" car, but left late and was out e.t.'d by Jerry Espeseth by a 5.747 - 237.17 to 5.774 - 253.66 margin. Hodgson was .078 behind on the leave, and even his big top-end charge failed to close the gap.

(LEFT) Two closely matched competitors faced off in the next pair, in a mild upset, Steven Densham (left side) left on Rian Konno (right side) by half a tenth, then held off Konno's quicker and faster 5.810 - 247.93 with a just-good-enough 5.813 at a seriously slowing 213.94 speed. Unfortunately, that's where the good news stopped for Densham as a massive explosion just before the finish line blew the body off the car and prevented the team from making the second round call.

(RIGHT) This is another one-car shot, as Billy Morris (pictured) in the "Problem Child" had a troubled and early shutoff run of 17.843 - 46.10 that was more than good enough to take the winlight over a seriously red-lighting Tony Jurado - a -.318 light. The scoreboards showed that he ran a low e.t. of the world 5.532 - 229.51 but the numbers must be bogus, probably caused by the staging lights staying on as he launched.

(LEFT) The second to last pair of the opening round featured something almost unique in Nostalgia flopper racing: a pair of non-Camaros. In the decidedly old-school appearing Monza (left side) was Geoff Monise in the "Van Gundy & Clark" car, against relative newcomer Matt Melendez (right side) who took the win with a very strong 5.691 - 242.32 over Monise's quicker leaving (.114 to .144) but slower arriving 5.983 - 240.21 effort.

(RIGHT) To close out the opening round of eliminations, Jeff Arend (right side) pushed the beautiful "California Hustler" to a 5.808 - 252.61 to cover the "Jailbreak" car of Brad Thompson as he trailed at 5.913. Thompson left with Arend and stayed close until the 1000 ft. mark, then ran out of steam and slowed to 204.51 mph for the loss.