| Top Five Time-Trial Performers | |||||||
| Position | Car | Driver | Make | Sponsor | Speed | Time | Behind |
| 1 | 24 | Charlie Thompson | Chevy | Halligan's | 96.28 | 19.66 | Leader |
| 2 | 33 | Danni Durns | Ford | Raster Co. | 95.72 | 19.75 | -.9 |
| 3 | 2 | Billy Ray Jones | Toyota | Better Oil | 95.27 | 19.78 | -.12 |
| 4 | 99 | Manuel Fernandez | Dodge | Pupp's Chicken | 95.13 | 19.81 | -.15 |
| 5 | 7 | Val Vincent | Honda | Less Beverages | 95.20 | 19.88 | -.22 |
Charlie Thompson was in an unfamiliar situation last Sunday. He was down by a fraction of a second and facing the last time trials at the Rust River Raceway. Charlie has dominated this season so far, and he has always performed well at Rust River, so he knew he had his back up to the wall as he went up against surging Danni Durns in the last time trial. Charlie responded well to the challenge, and he finished first overall, although it was a narrow victory over his rival Durns. Thompson not only had the best time, but he proved again that he has the fastest Chevy on the circuit. No other Chevy finished in the top ten.
"This track has been very good for me, Thompson said. "I just feel really comfortable here. The car just seems to take to this track. Val Vincent, who finished fifth, felt good about finishing in the top five. "We used a new chassis, and we were very pleased with the results. We obviously have some fine tuning to do, but we were really happy with the way things worked out," said Vincent.
Surprisingly finishing out of the top ten was Cheng Tan, who has had a good season so far. "The winter was good for us," he said, "but we've been having problems this spring. I think we will be able to turn things around for the summer. I want to see how we do here for the Rust River 200 in July. This is a nice track, and I like the way the car handles here."
The practice sessions on both Saturday and Sunday were threatened to be called off because of a forecast of heavy rain. A storm did move through the area on Saturday, but fortunately, the track received only about one minutes' worth of light rain. A thunderstorm passed by on Sunday right after the trials. The storm didn't affect the time trials. but it did snarl traffic leaving the stadium at the end of the day.
The trials were delayed slightly on Sunday because of an award ceremony that took place before the trials. Diego Lopez received a trophy for winning the Rust River 200 last year in record time. Diego has been on the circuit for quite some time, and he has fallen on some hard times of late, so it was good to see him come off with a big win here last year. "I and my team are really glad to receive this trophy. I feel that my team won this one for me. We've been going through a rough stretch, and it's good to be reminded of how good this team can be," said Diego.
