The final pair of Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous qualifying at the season-opening Summit Racing Equipment PDRA East Coast Nationals featured the quickest side-by-side pass in class history, as four-time world champion and national E.T. record holder Jim Halsey ran a 3.608 at 208.84 alongside three-time and defending world champion Tommy Franklin’s 3.615 at 206.42.
Halsey’s pass in his new Brandon Switzer-tuned, Fulton-powered ’68 Camaro was quicker than his four-year-old series E.T. record of 3.613 seconds, giving him the opportunity to leave with a new record if he can back it up by running within 1% of the 3.608 in eliminations.
“The new car showed in testing and at Bradenton that it was going to be pretty good,” Halsey said. “We just need to figure it out all the way. We had probably 800 runs on the other car and we may have 10 or 12 on this one. So, it will take a while, but it’s going to be a good car.”
A similarly quick pass in Thursday testing gave Switzer and Halsey the data they needed to throw down a monster run in the final qualifying session.
“We thought we could repeat that,” Halsey said of his strong pass in testing. “That’s pretty much what we tried to do. I think we were like two thou at the 330 within that. We were not really standing on it hard, but we weren’t taking it easy either.”
Franklin, who left the starting line first and picked up the Nitrous Wars engine builder challenge win for Team Pat Musi Racing Engines, qualified second with his 3.615 in his “Jungle Rat” ’69 Camaro. Fredy Scriba, who brought out a brand-new, Musi-powered ’69 Camaro, qualified third with a 3.655 at 206.29.
This story was originally published on April 6, 2024. 
