Three of the Nostalgia Super Stockers that were in competition were nine-second cars. Two of those were Mopars: The homebuilt 1965 Belvederes belonging to Missouri racers Jim Hagenhoff and Don Bruemmer.  Both Belvederes had  “big” Hemi-headed engines in the frames and both consistently ran sub ten-second ET’s.

The quickest car was the Fairlane/Thunderbolt Ford belonging to D.W. Hopkins who drove from Tupelo, MS, for the race. His T-Bolt ran 9.30’s at over 140 mph.

After one round of Eliminations, six of the ten remaining cars were, of course, Mopars. The other four were the T-bolts driven by Hopkins and Marty Bertagwoli from Elgin, Ill., and the ‘67 Buick driven by Jim Netherland from Tennessee and local racer Kenny Gresham from nearby Granite City, Ill.

The first pair in the second round matched up a couple of Missouri racers, Tommy Mitchell driving his Coronet against the 425-hp Max wedge-powered  ’63 Coronet belonging to Clay Kossuth. In a preview of coming attractions Mitchell had a .035 light but ran an 11.084 on an 11.08 dial. That run forced Kossuth, who had a better .016, to run under his dial tripping the beams in 10.269/127.28 on his 10.34 dial. 

Stanley Rideout booted his 500-inch Mopar-powered ’63 Savoy to a win over Jim Hagenhoff’s ‘65 Belvedere that uses a 498 incher for power.

Hopkins got another win with his T-bolt and this time the victim was Netherland’s Buick.

The only female driver left in the competition, Rosie Kossuth, ran her ’64 Coronet to a 10.388/118.66 lap that didn’t cover Joe Johnson and his ’63 Coronet that ran a 11.12 on his 11.00 dial. (Jeff Burk photo)

D.W. Hopkins  (Jeff Burk photo)

In the quarter-finals Mitchell ended Hopkins and his Fairlane’s day at the races in a double-breakout race. Mitchell ran an 11.06 on an 11.08 dial that easily covered Hopkins’ charging Thunderbolt that ran a lap of 9.334/139.66 on a 9.40 dial.

Mitchell and his Dodge got the bye into the finals while the local track racer Gresham took the measure of Rideout’s ‘63 Savoy, preventing an all-Mopar final.

It didn’t matter, though, as in the final round Mitchell put almost a half-tenth holeshot on Gresham’s Chevy with a .058 light for Mitchell and a comatose .114 for Gresham.  Mitchell’s much better light forced Gresham to stand on the throttle too long and he broke out, running a 10.88 on a 10.90 dial.