It's safe to say Todd Bruce wasn't exactly the A/Fuel dragster everybody had their eye on heading into this past weekend's Nitro Chaos season opener at Edgewater Sports Park, as that nod went to Two-time NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster Champion Megan Meyer, who was making her return to the driver seat for the first time in competition since winning the last Nitro Chaos race at Mo-Kan Dragway in 2022.

That seemed even more evident in qualifying as Meyer blasted to the No. 1 qualifying position with a blistering eighth-mile 3.508-second pass at over 228 miles per hour, a run that was a full tenth quicker than the next-best driver. While Bruce, at the wheel of "The Bull" A/Fuel dragster out of Canada, who coincidentally beat Meyer in the final round of Top Alcohol Dragster at the NHRA Fall Nationals in Dallas in 2017 to capture his first career national event win, struggled mightily in qualifying smoking the tires early on each of his first two runs.

However, Bruce and his team dug deep, putting it all together in the final qualifying session on Saturday afternoon, running a 3.656 at 217, placing him third in the pecking order, and then in eliminations, Bruce grabbed the proverbial "bull by the horn" outlasting a loaded field of fuel cars in the 'A' field, including hometown favorite Tyler Hilton in the final round to capture his first win in his first Chaos start.

The final round of the 'A' field at Edgewater featured a battle between a rear-engine dragster and a front-engine dragster as Bruce faced off against the 2022 NHRA Heritage Series Top Fuel Champion Hilton in the "Great Expectations III."

It was a special weekend for the entire Hilton family as Tyler was making his first career Nitro Chaos start at a racetrack where both his grandfather and father, Bobby Hilton, raced at in the past. The Hilton's race shop is also just fifteen minutes from the racetrack.

Hilton qualified in the No. 5 position with a solid 3.732 at 214 miles per hour. He fell off in performance just a little bit in the opening round against Dave Hill in the "Mad Max" Nitro Funny Car, as Hilton had to give his 4,000 horsepower machine a quick pedal early in the run. However, it was still good enough for Hilton to secure the win as Hill smoked the tires right at the hit of the throttle, and the Great Expectations driver sailed on down the eighth mile, recording a 4.103 at 207.

Hilton faced his toughest task yet in the semi-finals going up against the No. 1 qualifier and the dominant car all weekend long of Megan Meyer. Meyer was the class of the field and ran an impressive 3.645 at 215 to defeat Eric Stevens in the "BlueGrass Thunder" Nitro Funny Car in the first round. But in the semi-finals, Meyer uncharacteristically turned on the red light, going (-.164) red, automatically giving Hilton the victory as he stopped the clocks with a stout 3.796 at 211 to advance into the final round and trying to finish off the storybook ending.

Unfortunately, just like in the semi-finals, a red light determined the outcome of the final round as Hilton went (-.010) red on the Christmas tree, handing the win to Bruce, who capped off the evening with a 3.758 at over 167 miles per hour and stellar (.031) reaction time to capture his first Nitro Chaos win in his very first start.

"All the credit goes to Clif Bakx and the whole crew we have here today," Bruce said. "My wife, doing the other side of the motor, Jarrett doing the clutch, and Clif's awesome tuning ability. Maybe a little bit the driver, but you know they're a dime a dozen. You can find drivers anywhere."

Bruce was given a gift in the opening round of eliminations on Saturday afternoon when his competitor James Gilliland at the wheel of the "Psycho Too" AA/Fuel Altered, could not make the call, giving Bruce a free ride into the next round. Nonetheless, Bruce still powered his A/Fuel dragster to a stout 3.604 at 221, which would be good enough for lane choice in the semi-finals.

Bruce matched up against another Altered in the semi-finals, this time squaring off against No. 2 qualifier Pete Dove at the controls of Jody Austin's mighty "BushWhacker" Fuel Altered. Dove defeated Marc White in the opening round with a stellar 3.61 at 189 miles per hour but was unable to duplicate that performance in the semi-finals as he blew the tires off right at the hit, allowing Bruce to drive away for the victory and lay down his quickest elapsed time of the weekend at 3.583 seconds at over 222 miles per hour to clinch a berth in the final round.

Long-time Chaos competitor Levi Keenen joined Bruce in the winner circle as he also captured his first Chaos win, taking home top honors in the 'B' field.

Keenen, a new member of the "long-time runner, first-time winner" club in Chaos competition, scored the monumental win convincingly.

"I'm super excited. This has been a long time coming," Keenen said. "Super proud of everybody and all the guys. My stepdad, you know, he's the reason we're doing this. I'm just pumped. I'm speechless."

Keenen qualified second in the 'B' field with a 4.009 and had a consistent car on race day. Keenen kicked off eliminations defeating the all-black Fuel Altered named "Mass Chaos" driven by John Umlauf in the opening round with a solid 4.060 at over 187 miles per hour.

But Keenen was not done spoiling the Altereds' day as he would go two for two against Fuel Altereds through the first two rounds of eliminations, this time taking down Dan Pettinato at the wheel of "Rat Poison" while also picking up in performance in the semi-finals, defeating Pettinato with a strong 4.007 at over 182 miles per hour to advance into the final round.

Keenen's victim in the final round would not be an Altered this time but none other than a front-engine Top Fuel Dragster, as Keenen squared off against No. 1 qualifier in the 'B' field Gary Wheeler at the wheel of the "Grand Prix Racing" front-engine Top Fuel Dragster, setting up a classic Dragster vs. Funny Car matchup in the final.

Wheeler had a bye in the opening round before taking down Michael Tabacco in the semi-finals with a strong 3.86 at over 197 miles per hour. He seemed to be the favorite going into his final-round confrontation with Keenen.

However, Keenen got the advantage over Wheeler on the starting line, cutting an impressive (.057) light to Wheeler's (.145) and laying down his best run of the weekend with a stellar 3.979-second pass at over 193 miles per hour to Wheeler's quicker but losing 3.938 at 188 to take the win on a holeshot and capture his first Chaos victory.

"I took a bargain, stabbing it in deep," Keenen admitted. "I was waiting up there on the line. I thought, you know I've never done it (deep staging), and I know he's faster, and I'm going to put it in deep and take a shot at it, so that's what we did."

Nitro Chaos returns May 26-28 at Eddyville Raceway Park in Iowa for the Nitro Chaos/ Funny Car Chaos double header Memorial Day weekend.