NHRA Gatornationals Friday Sportsman Results

GAINESVILLE – Lucas Oil series sportsman racers continued eliminations Friday at the 50th annual NHRA Gatornationals. With the exception of Competition Eliminator and Factory Stock, all of the Lucas Oil classes hit the track for second round.

Competition Eliminator moved into first round on Friday while the Factory Stockers made two qualifying hits.

The Factory Stock class seems to be most interesting class right now as there was tons of speculation as to how fast they would run in Gainesville. They didn’t disappoint as the first all-seven second FSS field occurred during the second qualifying shot.

Updates for each class are listed below. For more Lucas Oil sportsman racing news from the Gatornationals, click here and here.

Factory Stock Showdown

This just in, the Cobra Jets are fast! After two rounds of qualifying on Friday, Bill Skillman lead the field with a 7.801 at 175 shot. Six of the top eight qualifiers were Mustang Cobra Jets.

David Barton and Arthur Kohn qualified their COPO Camaro’s in the 6th and 7th spots respectively.

Paul Roderick posted the top speed with a 179.33 blast.

After a dominate second half to the 2018 season, the Dodge’s were quiet on Friday. World champ Leah Pritchett is currently on the outside looking in. Her 19th best 8.007 will leave her some work to do on Saturday. Only three Challenger’s made qualifying passes today. Former Pro Stock racers Allen Johnson and Mark Pawuk finished the day 26th and 27th on the qualifying sheet.

The Factory Stockers will have one final qualifying attempt on Saturday before moving into round one of eliminations.

Team DragChamp pick to win Drew Skillman sits in the number 4 spot.

Competition Eliminator

Comp racers had one shot at the track today. Team DragChamp pick and number one qualifier Brad Plourd picked up the win over a red-lighting Kevin Duet.

In every match up, the faster qualified car won the round. For the most part no one killed their index with the exception of Greg Kamplain. Kamplain got into a shootout with Van Puckett with both drivers running around -.60 under their index. While Kamplain ultimately won the round, he probably killed his shot at winning the race.

Super Stock

Team DragChamp made it through round two as Jimmy Hidalgo Jr. and Jeff Longhany collected wins. Last year’s winner Kevin Riner kept his hopes of a repeat alive when he defeated Ed Longhany Sr.

Marion Stephenson finally loses. After winning the first two Division 2 Lucas Oil events of the year, Stephenson bowed out in the second round.

Tyler Bohannon moved into round three after Dan Fletcher turned it red by -.004. Number one qualifier Roy Hill, Anthony Bertozzi, and Anthony Bongiovanni among others made it to round three.

Super Stock is scheduled for two rounds on Saturday.

Stock Eliminator

Slate Cummings took Team DragChamp into the 3rd round after defeating a red-lighting Scott Gove.

Dan Fletcher would definitely like a do-over of his second round match with the wildly popular Randi Lyn Shipp. Fletcher had a .027 to .073 lead off the line only to get behind at the stripe by -.0004. Shipp posted a .038 over 10.598 against Fletcher’s .084 over 11.584.

A number of top-name drivers remain including Jeff Adkinson, Charlie Downing of the Class Racer Podcast, Jeff Strickland, Brandon Bakies, and more.

Stock is scheduled for two rounds on Saturday.

Super Comp

Our remaining picks in Super Comp both fell in similar fashion during round two. Both Jonathan Anderson and Ray Miller 3 took .020 to .03 leads off the line but proceeded to get behind at the stripe in their respective races.

With DragChamp out of bullets in Super Comp, we’ll just have to cheer for the remaining competitors which include Michelle Furr, Cole Cummings, Holden Laris, Sherman Adcock, and more.

The Gainesville Raceway starting line must be tight this week as their have been a large number of redlights and double redlights in Super Comp. Racers will need to stay green if they expect to hoist Wally on Sunday.

Super Gas

Much like Super Comp, redlights were plentiful during round two of Super Gas. After going 3 for 3 in round one, our picks fell fast in round two. Sherman Adcock lost on a double-breakout while John Taylor and Steve Furr turned it red.

The race of the round was between Michelle Furr and Little John Labbous. Labbous left first .009 to .021 but managed to get behind by .005 at the stripe. Furr took the win with a 9.948 to Labbous’s 9.965.

Both Michelle Furr and Cole Cummings have a shot to double up as they are still alive in two classes.

Dwight Nuest, Ed Richarson, Rusty Cook, and David Tatum III are among those moving on to round three on Saturday. Super Gas is scheduled to complete two rounds on Saturday.

Super Street

Like Super Gas, our Super Street pick to win fell in round two. Ray Dew got beat off the line and broke out trying to make up the difference.

Jonathan Anderson will lead the Super Street class into round three on Saturday.

Super Street competitors will run two rounds on Saturday.

Top Sportsman

Ronnie Proctor and Sandy Wilkins kept Team DragChamp perfect in Top Sportsman after both found win lights in round two.

Crowd favorite Lester Johnson fouled out in his popular ’55 Chevy in round two.

Top Sportsman is scheduled for one round on Saturday.

Top Dragster

Jeff Strickland continues to carry the DragChamp flag after taking a close win in round two. Strickland has a shot to double up this weekend as he is still alive in Stock Eliminator too.

Aaron Stanfield, Anthony Bertozzi, and Steve Furr headline the racers moving into round three. Only one round is scheduled for Top Dragster on Saturday.

Check back with DragChamp on Saturday for complete sportsman drag race results from the 50th Amalie NHRA Gatornationals.

Click here for more NHRA sportsman drag racing news or here for the Gatornationals event preview.