RAPID CITY - Dave Kennison learned he had a chance to drag race on national television. Naturally, that's about the time his car problems started.

Kennison, of Rapid City, was one of 475 drivers vying for a limited number of openings on an episode of SPEED Channel's "PINKS: All Out," where grassroots drag racers compete for $18,000 in cash and merchandise on the syndicated Cable TV network

"My wife actually heard about it and knew when the registration period was. She was watching it online, and was able to get me registered. Fifteen minutes later they were completely sold out," Kennison said.

"When you think about your chances of winning the lottery, having odds of one-in-475 starts to sound pretty good," said Kennison, a mechanic at United Rentals.

Adding to the optimism was the fact that his 1969 Chevy Camaro Z-28 was armed with a fresh 434 cubic-inch engine.

"We had a new motor. The car was ready to go. I thought we were in the clear," he said.

Not quite.

The PINKS event was scheduled at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo., the weekend of Aug. 8-10.

But racing at Sturgis Dragway in late July, Kennison's new engine lost compression the first time down the eighth-mile.

"It was smoking real bad. It basically took a big ol' flying dump on me," Kennison said.

"We had a bunch of parts lying around, so we threw a motor together, stuffed it in and that's what's in there now," he said.

"We had one week to get a new motor together and one day to test and tune. We had to go on to PINKS without knowing a whole lot about it," Kennison said.

Kennison also had install a transmission safety shield, required by National Hot Rod Association rules, the night before leaving for Colorado.

"We were starting to wonder if we were going to make it because there were a lot of things going wrong at the last minute," Kennison said.

Kennison was able to borrow the safety shield from fellow drag racer Ron Starkey of Rapid City, and also received a last-minute sponsorship from A & H Truck Salvage of Rapid City.

Once at Bandimere, Kennison posted elapsed times in the 10.90 range in four qualifying runs on the quarter-mile.

"I tried to make the car as consistent as possible and do the same thing each time," Kennison said.

Unfortunately, PINKS producers picked a slower class of slower cars, all running elapsed times between 12 and 12.2 seconds, to be on the show.

"They choose the class that runs the closest. They had to show that they can run 12 to 12.2 seconds consistently. If you run faster than that, you're out of the show."

Although unable to qualify, Kennison was able to watch the eliminations filmed for broadcast on Oct. 9.

"It was pretty interesting. You never get to see everything that goes on behind the scenes. I'm looking forward to seeing how it comes out on Oct. 9," he said.

Kennison plans to race this weekend at Pierre's Oahe Speedway and will finish out the year there and at Sturgis Dragway.

"I'm going to dial the car in and get a feel for it for the rest of the year, then start fresh for next season."