2000 as well. Then it went to Sunday evening for a few years. Interestingly enough, Norwalk is on the old St. Louis hot as hell date.
I know Denver ran evening eliminations back in the 70's and 80's. I'm not sure if they were Saturday evening.
My guess would be the track owner and NHRA would have agree on when the gate would be the largest. The TV window would also be a factor. Lastly, would PRO agree to it.
I personally think racing at Norwalk at Noon and 2:30pm sucks. The excuse of making qualifying runs in race conditions to prep for Sunday is bulls**t when everyone is out there smoking the tires on Saturday. There has to be a balance of actual racing and putting on a respectable show for the fans.
Just from person experience. I've seen way too many times when either sitting in the staging lanes waiting to run or in the stands when fuels cars are running, people heading for the exits and nothing but red tail lights in the parking lot. I've seen it many times at RT66 and Indy. One of cool things about our sport is the amount of action on the track and in the pit area throughout whole day, but I also think it makes for a very long day, especially if you have kids.