Well it was certainly an interesting day at the Texas Motorplex on Tuesday as a couple of Drag Week fields were decimated by carnage both on a off the track. There were some heroic runs, monster performances, and a couple of surprises to boot. The crew at the Texas Motorplex did a fantastic job setting up the track and giving racers the traction they needed. They also did a killer job of cleaning up a few messes created by leaking race cars on the track. Everyone got their runs in and today we’re gearing up for action in Louisiana.

Here’s the highlights –

Unlimited Class Carnage Rules Supreme –

Yesterday, the following Unlimited competitors dropped out:

Joe Barry

Dave Ahokas

David Schroeder

Earl Schexnayder

That leaves essentially a three car race and what a race it is going to be! As it happened in 2010, Jeff Lutz and Larry Larson are within a couple hundredths of a second of one another coming into day three. Larson has a two day average of 7.03 seconds and Lutz has earned a 7.08 second average from Tulsa and Texas. Lutz’s car ran over 212mph again yesterday. Larson made multiple hits in the morning and could not get the Nova down broadway. Lutz uncorked a 7.01 second lap and all of a sudden, Larson’s back was against the wall. On one of the final passes of the day, Larson managed a 7.11/209mph run, which kept him a couple of hundo ahead of Lutz and salvaged what would have been a totally horrendous day.

The third really serious car left in the race is Tom Bailey and his 1969 Camaro with Steve Morris power. He shook and shimmied down to a mid-7 second lap yesterday which hurt his average, but put him solidly into the third position. Remember, that Camaro ran 7.10/196 earlier this week, so it has the potential to be a player and perhaps Bailey can lie and wait for one of the others to suffer an issue before wicking his car up to go in for the kill.

Stay tuned!

Pro Street Power Adder Also Hurt by Carnage –

This field was also greatly reduced by carnage yesterday. Aussie John Farone in his 1972 (Australian) Valiant Charger grenaded a transmission, which we’re told was his fourth of the week, and was not in a good position to continue on when we left the Motorplex yesterday. The boys could have gotten it mended and made an all night blast to Louisiana, but we’re thinking that they’re stuck. Hopefully we see that silver beast pull into Thunder Road today. Dominique Vallejos was knocked out when his absolutely awesome turbocharged, 10-cylinder, 3,800olb Dodge truck wrecked the block and ate itself up on a run. A local man offered up a cylinder head and the guys tore the motor down but the block was damaged and repairs were too great to attempt with the time available to fix it and get to Louisiana. The truck had run 9.09 in Tulsa at 148 and it sure seemed like 8-second laps were going to be coming in the near future.

Here are a few photos –