Volume II, Issue 9, Page 12
Think here is "some interest" in the Hemi Challenge"? You could hardly find room to walk in staging when they brought the Hemi cars to the staging lanes. Twenty-nine cars made the first round call.

The first round of eliminations at the Mopar Hemi-Shoot-out is complete. Thirty cars were entered but a few fell victim to mechanical problems. One such racer was Fred Henson. He broke a rod and put it through the side of his Charlie Westcott-prepared Hemi. He had a spare and it was in the car for the first round. The pictures show a little bit of the carnage when a rod exits a Hemi at 7500 RPM.

This is the visible engine damage to Fred Henson's Hemi. It shuddered once, he clicked it off and the damage was done. If you haven't bought a Super Stock Hemi lately -- which I would guess none of have -- you are looking at about $40,000.00 in damages.  The block has a big ol' window in it so it is beyond repair as well. The cylinder heads may or may not have survived, the oil pan is obviously headed for the scrap pile, and they were too busy putting in a fresh bullet to spend time looking at broken parts.

The first round saw some great bumper dragging wheelstands and very fast ETs considering they were up against a pretty steady 8-12 mph headwind.

The fastest car the first round was the DeFrank and Cohen “California Car Duster” Cuda with Rick Houser at the wheel. He picked up the front wheels and carried them out about 200 foot and recorded a 8.68 at 150.7 mph. The first round winners are listed below and a few pictures from what had to be about $10,000,000 worth of Hemi-powered ’68 Cudas and Darts parked in staging this morning. For an old Mopar guy…..This COULD BE HEAVEN!!!!!!

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