Between the Pep Boys All-Star Call-Out and the falling temperatures Saturday at cold, damp, windy Gainesville Raceway, Top Fuel qualifying for the Amalie Oil Gatornationals gave the Camping World Drag Racing Series some stunningly thrilling and stunning shocking results. 

In a weekend that was geared to salute the class’ Elite Eight racers in an $80,000-to-win shootout, three of them didn’t make the field because of the one-and-done nature of qualifying. And the No. 1 starting spot went to an independent owner-driver who entered ranked 16th in the standings and was making just his 12th appearance in Top Fuel competition. 

Tripp Tatum, 51, a former snow-removal entrepreneur who moved to Indianapolis to pursue his drag-racing dreams, plowed down the 1,000-foot Florida course Saturday at a track-record 3.674-second elapsed time at a career-best 331.53 mph for the first No. 1 starting position of his relatively young pro career.     

While Tatum stole her thunder, Brittany Force had a banner day. She used the first round of the Pep Boys All-Star Call-Out bonus race to grab the No. 2 qualifying position with a 3.684-second E.T. – exactly two-hundredths of a second behind Tatum – and reset Mike Salinas’ three-minute-old track speed record by more than five miles an hour, at a sizzling 337.75 mph. 

What’s more, she earned the first choice in the semifinal-round call-out of the Pep Boys-sponsored specialty race, but she will have to wait until Labor Day weekend to select Salinas, Justin Ashley, or Steve Torrence. The Call-Out will finish its final two rounds at the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis. The Funny Car class will have its edition of the All-Star Call-Out in September at that race, as well. 

The Call-Out results brought a double-whammy to Antron Brown, Leah Pruett, and Shawn Langdon. Their losses in the first round compounded because everyone in Top Fuel got just one pass Saturday. During Pro Stock qualifying, as track temperatures dipped below 70 degrees to render the surface unsafe for the 11,000-horsepower dragsters, NHRA officials later called a halt to Top Fuel racing for the day. So those three championship contenders missed the 16-car cut, along with Artie Allen and Ike Maier.  

Meanwhile, Tatum, eyeing a first-round match-up Sunday against debuting-for-2022 Lex Joon, said after his Saturday eye-opener, “First of all, this is not even close to sinking in yet. For me it’s just like a whirlwind. That’s probably lap 55-60 in a Top Fuel car for me. 

“My guys, we were just talking about slowing it down, just getting down the racetrack, conditions being as they are and not knowing the racetrack,” Tatum, who skipped the season opener at Pomona, Calif., said. “The Safety Safari, doing what they did, was just amazing. The racetrack ended up being far better than we even thought it would be. In my mind, I thought they were just going to try to slide the thing and try a mid- to upper-[3.]70.” 

Tatum said he did tell himself before the run that “this thing’s kind of running good.” He added an understatement: “It went down there pretty good, straight.” Blasting past the grandstands, he caught a crosswind that he said leaned on his car, which, he said, “took a little bit of a move on me and just went on down there.” He said, “I knew it would run pretty good. I just didn’t know it would run that good. It was so smooth, and a lot of times that fools you.” 

He credited the Capco Contractors Inc./Torrence Racing team that assembled his car, provides tech support, and guides the tuning of his dragster. (“Bobby and Dom [Lagana], the Capco family, they've been instrumental. I mean, this whole thing is with their help. They have given me an immense blessing . . . very blessed to be associated with them,” Tatum said.) 

His car mimics those of Torrence Racing. “They put the entire thing together. It's almost identical. It's just doing a little, few things different. It's R&D, trying things, testing,” he said. “So far it works pretty good.” 

Indeed, it does. He said, “It’s my job to go out there and take out cars that are a threat to” the Torrence team.” But if he can stay consistent in the limited schedule he has planned, Tatum could end up being more of a threat to the four-time and current champion. 

“I am a 100-percent self-funded car,” Tatum said. “When it runs this good, you want to run more. I feel like this car can be a contender. I just need to work on finding some help so we can run more races. 

In the Pep Boys All-Star Call-Out, Ashley advanced as Doug Kalitta red-lit (but qualified fifth, because foul starts don’t count in qualifying runs). 

“We were hungry for that one,” Kalitta said. “It seemed like I left close and looked over and it was red.” Ashley’s reaction was “There’s no real good way to prepare for Doug Kalitta, right? He's one of the best in the field right now, and he's one of the best to ever do it – let's face it.” 

Salinas, who unveiled new Pep Boys livery for his Scrappers Dragster at the starting line, registered a blistering 3.709-second pass at 332.10 mph that wasn’t necessary to defeat Shawn Langdon. The Kalitta Motorsports driver signaled his sitting-duck status by not attempting a burnout but double-bulbing Salinas (presumably to distract him at the starting line, perhaps using the only arrow he had in his quiver at the time). That left Langdon last among 18 entrants for the Gatornationals. 

Pruett, resolved to start pointing her new program at Tony Stewart Racing in the right direction, had mechanical troubles at the start, as well. And she watched Torrence run away to the victory with a 3.697-second, 329.50-mph performance that was good for the No. 3 spot on the Gatornationals grid. 

Force eliminated Antron Brown from the Pep Boys race, as he had traction trouble early in his run. 

Following another lengthy rain delay Saturday morning, the Safety Safari worked nonstop for nearly four hours to prepare an essentially bald racetrack. So it was slightly short of a miracle that anyone was able to race at all and that records fell in multiple classes, to boot. Torrence said, “The track conditions were great. We were skeptical, but [it was] definitely better than we thought.” 

Force said, “It’s Day 2 of the Gatornationals, and we got one run in. It's crazy, because it's our first run of the weekend and it's an elimination round. We got the win in the All-Star Call Out over Antron, and we get to play a little bit longer in this thing. We want to win it, there’s money on the line, there's a trophy on the line, and just a new title on the line, so we're going to chase it down. Tomorrow we go right into race day [she’ll meet Clay Millican in Round 1], so it's a new mindset, a new game.” 

Sunday pairings include Steve Torrence v. (No. 14) Tony Schumacher, No. 4 Salinas v. No. 13 and season-debuting Krista Baldwin, Kalitta v. No. 12 Alex Laughlin, No. 6 Ashley v. No. 11 Josh Hart, No. 7 Spencer Massey v. No. 10 Doug Foley, and No. 8 Austin Prock v. No. 9 Billy Torrence.