During the 2nd round of qualifying for AA/Gas Supercharged, the number 1 qualifier from round 1, Cecil Matthews, in his newly re-chassied '55T-Bird and sporting Jirka Kaplan's motor and trans, made an abrupt left turn right out of the gate and smacked the left wall hard.  I'm happy to report, that aside from some bruised ribs, Cecil is fine.  The car...not so much!

Thanks to Mike Morgan from the "Straight Line Modelers" group for this sequence of photos.

Speculation ran rampant about what caused this in the week after the meet.  Was it oil on the track, broken axle, what?  After speaking with Steve Woods, Howard Anderson, and Cecil Matthews wife, it is generally agreed that on launch, the tires shook hard and Cecil ended up running a slick into fuel that had spilled as can be seen in the photo below from GasserMadness.com photographer, Dean Court.