PENSACOLA, FL :: As soon as Johanna Long turned the provisional fast lap in qualifying for the Snowball Derby on Friday night, she knew her toughest competition would come from boyfriend Hunter Robbins.

As it turns out, Long was correct as Robbins won the pole for the 47th running of the most prestigious short track race in America with a lap time of 16.212, denying Long of her second-career Snowball Derby pole. This is the first Derby pole of Robbins’ career.

Long said she saw it coming.

“I knew it the moment that I got out of the car and they told me that I had the pole because the No. 18 (Robbins) had been fast all weekend,”Long told Race22.com after the session. “He deserves it, he has worked hard and he was really digging for it on the track. So I knew he was going to be the one to beat for sure.”

Robbins has had a frustrating season, highlighted with a separation from team owner Ronnie Sanders back in July. The pair had worked with each other since the 2012 season but parted when Sanders left Super Late Model racing. Robbins entered the Snowball Derby under his own team and even had to borrow a set of tires from Long just to run additional laps in practice on Friday afternoon.

“We spent a long time working on this thing, picking and choosing our races,” Robbins said. “We’ve been really underfunded this weekend, and we bought one set of practice tires. We borrowed a set of tires from Johanna. We were saving our set of stickers for today and wanted to make our mock run.”

Long joined Robbins on top of his hauler in the infield after he knocked her off the top spot because she wanted to be the first to congratulate him on the accomplishment.

“This is an extremely special moment for both us and I just wanted to tell him good job,” Long said. “I know just how many hours he puts into this and how hard he works so it was special for me just to see him earn this. I’ve put in a few hours of helping them too so I have a little bit of pride in it as well.”

Now all the attention turns to Sunday and race day. Robbins and Long, the 2010 Derby winner, will have a directory of short track superstars behind them at the drop of the green flag as John Hunter Nemechek, Augie Grill and Scotty Ellis completed the top-5 in single car time trials.

Two-time and defending Snowball Derby winner Erik Jones starts 10th and was a little disappointed that he wasn’t closer to the top-5.

Ï’m a little further back than I thought we would be,” Jones said. “I left a bit on the table. It’s not what we were hopng for but we’re not on the wrong side of it either. So it’s not bad. I think it’s the best we have ever started here in the past couple of years and hopefully we can pick off those spots and be there at the end.”

Qualifying only locked-in the 30 fastest teams while three others received a provisional starting position. The provisionals went to Alabama 200 winner Anderson Bowen, past winner Clay Rogers and track mainstay David Rogers, who got in on Five Flags Speedway track championship points.

Approximately 25 drivers are entered into the last chance race for the final four positions, including CRA Super Series champion Travis Braden, Johnny VanDoorn, Austin Theriault and Harrison Burton. The top four finishes from that race will advance into the Snowball Derby, assuming that they pass post-race technical inspection.

The complete qualifying results for the Snowball Derby can be found below.

Snowball Derby Qualifying Rundown

1. #18 Hunter Robbins — 16.212
2. #21 Johanna Long — 16.228
3. #8 John Hunter Nemechek — 16.232
4. #112 Augie Grill — 16.239
5. #83 Scotty Ellis — 16.262
6. #3 Ross Kenseth — 16.264
7. #95 Derrick Griffin — 16.272
8. #98 Daniel Hemric — 16.274
9. #1 Mike Garvey — 16.291
10. #51 Erik Jones — 16.292
11. #43 Derek Thorn — 16.3
12. #9 Chase Elliott — 16.301
13. #42 Chad Finley — 16.304
14. #29 Jeff Choquette — 16.319
15. #26 Bubba Pollard — 16.32
16. #41 T.J. Reaid — 16.323
17. #2 Donnie Wilson — 16.33
18. #31 Kyle Grissom — 16.334
19. #26 Preston Peltier — 16.339
20. #51 Stephen Nasse — 16.343
21. #37 Brian Hoar — 16.343
22. #2 D.J. Vanderley — 16.355
23. #7 Corey LaJoie — 16.367
24. #11 Logan Boyett — 16.374
25. #5 Dalton Sargeant — 16.391
26. #99 Casey Smith — 16.403
27. #9 Mark Kraus — 16.417
28. #42 Dennis Prunty — 16.422
29. #90 Grant Enfinger — 16.433
30. #10 Steve Dorer — 16.436
31. #29 Anderson Bowen — 16.439
32. #1 Travis Braden — 16.442
33. #11 David Rogers — 16.443
34. #57 Cole Timm — 16.446
35. #88 Garrett Jones — 16.455
36. #67 Clay Jones — 16.456
37. #147 Daniel Webster — 16.46
38. #45 Dwayne Buggay — 16.465
39. #16 Jacob Gomes — 16.472
40. #57 Austin Theriault — 16.473
41. #12 Harrison Burton — 16.48
42. #56 Gus Dean — 16.485
43. #22 Jeremy Pate — 16.495
44. #91 Ty Majeski — 16.501
45. #71 John VanDoorn — 16.511
46. #7 Paul Shafer, Jr. — 16.53
47. #129 Spencer Davis — 16.53
48. #4 Kyle Plott — 16.539
49. #5 Bayley Currey — 16.552
50. #98 Mason Mingus — 16.567
51. #79 Kyle Bryant — 16.581
52. #99 J.J. Haley — 16.584
53. #43 Dennis Schoenfeld — 16.589
54. #2 Clay Rogers — 16.596
55. #5 Jerry Artuso — 16.626
56. #22 Josh Bragg — 16.679
57. #88 Roger Reuse — 16.679
58. #5 Will Gallaher — 16.751
59. #1 Tim Martin — 16.767
60. #12 Garrett Campbell — 16.804
61. #47 Chris Fontaine — 16.863
62. #47 Jordan Sims — 16.874