RICHMOND - Top Alcohol Dragster Qualifying Notes, Session #2

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Fri, 13 Oct 2006, 06:35 PM

Top Alcohol Dragster Qualifying Notes, Session #2

By Dan Bennett

DINWIDDIE, Va. - Notes from round 2 qualifying in Top Alcohol Dragster at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, Inaugural Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals listing lane, driver name, elapsed time/top speed this round, position in order following run, best prior elapsed time/speed, and position in order prior to run:

Left Lane: Lee Callaway No Time, Now #5; Best prior run: 5.325/267.27, Was #5
Right Lane: Dave Hedges Jr. Runs 6.079/182.82, Now #12; Best prior run: 6.687/138.96, Was #12

5:59 p.m. and the sun is getting pretty low in the sky. At this time yesterday, the temperature started dropping like a rock.

Left Lane: Wayne Morris Runs 5.886/244.38, Now #13; Best prior run: 12.701/49.96, Was #13
Right Lane: Rich McPhillips Runs 5.397/255.10, Now #7; Best prior run: 21.924/29.59, Was #15

Two clean runs as the teams are coming to grips with the conditions.

Left Lane: John Finke Runs 5.548/255.58, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.256/277.32, Was #2
Right Lane: Dave DeAngelis Runs 5.520/255.97, Now #11; Best prior run: 5.762/187.00, Was #12

Neither run was a thing of beauty but DeAngelis picks up a couple of tenths.

Left Lane: Jeff Bohr Runs 8.721/102.24, Now #6; Best prior run: 5.379/266.48, Was #6
Right Lane: Ken Perry Runs 5.409/252.14, Now #8; Best prior run: 5.462/259.61, Was #8

Bohr spins hard off the line, but Perry makes a nice pass and steps up. Even with more cars getting down the track this session, we're still sitting here with a 28.00 bump. But remember, it's early in the race.

Left Lane: Marty Thacker Runs 5.706/247.93, Now #13; Best prior run: 28.000/0.00, Was #16
Right Lane: Dave Heitzman Runs 14.415/54.64, Now #3; Best prior run: 5.278/264.39, Was #3

Heitzman destroys the tires at the hit. Instant smoke and he's unable to recover. Thacker's car sounded ok but was dropping cylinders down track.

Left Lane: Dave Hirata Runs 5.754/250.27, Now #11; Best prior run: 5.475/238.22, Was #10
Right Lane: Arthur Gallant Runs 5.332/269.35, Now #6; Best prior run: 19.204/52.92, Was #16

Two very strong nitro cars match up in this pair.

Hirata's not going to be happy with his results but Gallant picks up the pace considerably.

Right Lane: Bill Reichert Runs 10.880/75.07, Now #1; Best prior run: 5.209/276.63, Was #1

Reichert has to go two rounds of competition here to wrap up his championship. He gets a single here and you better believe the data received is of utmost importance to his crew and tuning effort.

OK, now they know what not to do. With the sun shining almost directly in our eyes, it's hard to get a clear look right now but it sure sounded as if the car shook hard right from the start.

Reichert shuts off by 400 feet.

Right Lane: Robin Samsel Runs 5.487/236.26, Now #12; Best prior run: 5.571/231.95, Was #13

Samsel's car stepped up a bit, but still seemed to be dropping a cylinder here and there.

6:23 p.m. and it looks like we're finished with the session.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink