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Essa threw it in deep on the initiation of his lead run – taking out a clipping cone and phasing the Norwegian Hammer, as Aasbo straightened while following the BMW. Aasbo also had a big initiation on his lead run, and Essa was slightly shallow following Aasbo’s initiation, but the run was good enough to convince all three judges to advance Essa.
This was no contest. Wilkerson threw tons of angle and speed at Lonberger’s Corvette on the first run. Lonberger had decent speed on his lead run and Wilkerson dropped two tires following, but all three judges advanced Wilkerson to the Top-16.
The underdog, Ryan Kado, came out swinging against Justin Pawlak by shadowing the Mustang on the initiation. The aggressive move cost him some proximity during the rest of the run but he did a decent job following. Pawlak, however, was glued to Kado’s rear bumper during Kado’s lead run and earned himself a trip to the Top-16.
Bakchis’s lead run was too much for Maeng to handle. Entering at a fast 71 mph and with a ton of angle, Maeng made a mistake trying to match his angle and straightened the car. Maeng had a great initiation, causing Bakchis to straighten in the first inner clip. The judges, however, felt Maeng’s mistake far outweighed Bakchis’s and Bakchis moved on.
Looking to get his First top-32 win of the season, DeNofa – with a new park bench installed on the back of his BMW – came out swinging against drifter-turned-judge-turned-drifter. Angelo led first with DeNofa shadowing his every move, but DeNofa simply ran away from Angelo during his lead run and the judges moved him into the Top-16 for the first time.
