Sat, 18 Feb 2012, 13:11 PM Top Alcohol Dragster Qualifying Notes, Session #1

By Larry Sullivan

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Top Alcohol Dragster at the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, Southeast Division, event at Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville listing lane, driver name, elapsed time, top speed, and position in order following run:

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Left Lane: Douglas Foley Runs 16.309/67.94, Now #1

12:43 p.m. Foley is driving the Randy Meyer A/Fuel car.

He lost traction immediately, turning the tires a couple of times, then shaking.

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Left Lane: Mark Taliaferro Runs 5.458/272.67, Now #1
Right Lane: Don Fiorelli Runs 8.217/97.98, Now #2

Fiorello's car chattered the tires on the launch, then made a left turn about 300 feet out and he lifted. Taliaferro had to pedale it once to get through tire shake, made a strong charge on the top end.

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Left Lane: Chase Copeland Runs 5.564/253.95, Now #3
Right Lane: Sidnei Frigo Runs 5.385/259.11, Now #1

Copeland made a clean launch, then the car dropped a cylinder on the right side and shook. Frigo made an even stronger launch, avoided major tire shake and used the momentum to go to the #1 spot, but may have dropped a cylinder past half track.

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Left Lane: Artie Allen Runs 5.592/234.94, Now #5
Right Lane: Rich McPhillips Runs 5.361/260.66, Now #1

The Regional concept worked better for the dragsters than the Funny Cars this weekend, at least a dozen of the long, skinny cars showing up for this first East Regional event.

Both cars left "squiggly" tire marks for the first 60 feet or so and Allen ran out of power well before the stripe.

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Left Lane: Aaron Tatum Runs 5.549/246.93, Now #5
Right Lane: Dan Page Runs 5.461/261.78, Now #4

Page's car kept going to the left and he had to make a hard steering correction around half track. Both cars had some tire shake, but they were able to drive through it without pedaling.

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Left Lane: Dan Mercier Runs 5.526/255.82, Now #6
Right Lane: Duane Shields Runs 5.465/257.48, Now #5

Last pair. Both had the early tire chatter that characterized the round, neither made a strong charge through the middle of the run and Rich McPhillips stays atop the list at 5.361.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink



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