In the final pairing of the first round Ed Schwarz's Santa Fe Springs, NM-based '48 Fiat Topolina was matched up against Ron Maroney in the Maroney Brothers’ '32 Bantam. Schwarz left on Maroney and led him to the stripe, recording a 6.886 /202.18 to Maroney’s 7.415/150. In typical Fuel Altered fashion none of the “hitter” booked-in cars could answer the call for the second round of action as they had all wounded their motors in the previous round.
As a result, the championship would be determined in a race between second quickest altered Hilsabeck in his “Arizona Thunder” and Generalao driving his “Impatient” '23 T-bucket. Hilsabeck, who had not driven his '23 T-nitro beast in over a year and was nervous before the event started, went home with the win as he and the crew leaned a little bit more on the blown Hemi going into the final. After the leave Hilsabeck drove away from Generalao, recording his best numbers of the event with a 6.331 e.t. at 222.82 mph to Generalao’s shutting off 6.715 /187.81 mph.
The Fuel Altered Nationals also featured an open eight-car Alcohol Altered show running on a 7.50 index. Sixteen cars vied to make the eight-car show. Local racer Mike Boettcher in his '48 Fiat made the elite field as the first alternate and then proceeded to take out number one qualifier Becky Sylvester (shown) from St. George, Utah, driving her family’s
“California Rattler” '23 T-bucket. Becky, who does some great dry hops before each run, got left on and ran way too quick chasing Boettcher to the finish line. Her too-quick 7.448/180.52 mph gave the win to Boettcher’s 7.612/166.72 run.
The next pair saw Tim Brown from Lakewood, CA, and his ‘48 Fiat take the win light over Jim Carter out of Phoenix. Brown took the win with a 7.953/166 mph to Carter's 8.325 /169.27. Dan Levitt’s ‘32 Bantam bodied “Twisted Addiction” took the win over Crestline, CA’s Dave Ward in the Teitz & Ward ‘48 Fiat. Levitt’s 7.646/ 158.00 to Ward’s 7.652 /173.96 was one of the closest races of the event. Unfortunately Levitt broke the car and Ward advanced to the next round.
