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The next pair saw Mike Romines of Stockbridge, GA, steer his flamed ’67 Nova past the similarly adorned ’57 Chevy driven by Linden, TN’s Lee Adkins Jr., who shook hard early in the run. “It got up on the wheelie bar too hard and got loose at the top end, too,” Adkins said. “There’s something out of whack on it so we’re going to take it to Garret (Livingston, at Garret Race Cars) and let him take a look at it.”
Next, despite starting second, Ronnie Davis easily handled Clarence Cloud and his ’41 Willys, who was fortunate just to be racing after snapping the front yoke off of his car’s driveshaft on the launch of his second qualifying attempt. The opening session was closed out with Michael Reece steering his Wally Stroupe-built ’37 Chevy past the radical 1970 Boss Mustang driven by Chuck Miner, from Greenville, TN.
After spending 14 years behind the wheel of a bracket racing dragster, Montgomery semi-finalist Mike Romines made the move this year to heads-up doorslammers with the help of racing partner Phil Wallace. “I think I’ve found a new home,” Romines said. “This is a lot more fun.” The ’67 Nova, built by GPS Race Cars, carries an Eagle Racing engine with just one shot of nitrous installed at this time.
The semi-finals featured Reece going up against Rick Davis, while in just the second race with his car Romines had to face ‘The King.’ Romines actually left first, but his 4.701/137.74 combination was no match for the 4.381/168.13 put together by Davis. Romines admitted afterward he was “kind of nervous” going to the line, not only because of Davis’ obvious performance advantage, but also because “we had trouble all day in the right lane and kept getting put over there.”
In the second semi, Reece got a little anxious and left .009 too soon, throwing away a quicker and faster 4.474/161.60 against the 4.490/160.08 posted by Rick Davis. “The only
problem I had all day was letting go of the button too quick,” Reece said, adding it was the first redlight start he’d suffered in eliminations since getting the car two years ago.
After the final, Ronnie Davis, known as an excellent “leaver” in the NHRA/IHRA Top Sportsman ranks, revealed his reaction times appeared a bit off all day as he’d dialed .04 into his delay box because he wanted to make sure he didn’t “go red on a pro tree and give a race away when I’m quicker.”
With five of nine confirmed events completed in APMA’s inaugural season, Davis acknowledged, as founder and promoter of the sanctioning body, that the car count hasn’t been as strong as he’d like at some events, especially since he has more than 40 paid members. Regardless, Davis stressed he’s been pleased with the quality of the entrants and on-track action so far this season.
“I have five different tracks wanting to book me for later this year and next year, so I assume they like what they see, too,” he said. “It will take a season to get the car count up. The biggest problem I have is that most of my members are traveling professional Sportsman racers like me who are chasing championships in NHRA and IHRA and can’t come to all my races. I think some joined just to help me out because I pretty much started Top Sportsman in NHRA from nothing in 2002 and they are just saying thanks to me by joining APMA.
“The other problem is that many don't think they can run with me, Crump, (Huntsville winner, Joe) Baker, Reece and some others who are fast, but at every race this year I've had new guys show up and join. So APMA will race in 2007? For sure!” 
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