Fri, 5 Oct 2001, 07:58 PM READING - Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #2

By Jim Samuel

MOHNTON, Pa. - Notes from round 2 qualifying in Funny Car at the 17th annual Pep Boys NHRA Nationals presented by Greased Lightning 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:

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Left Lane: Dale Creasy Jr. Runs 5.055/294.56, Now #11; No Prior Run

3:10 PM Creasy did not make a qualifying attempt in round one. This time, he made a nice looking run until he began to smoke the engine at 1,000 feet.

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Left Lane: John Force Runs 4.893/308.78, Now #2; No Prior Run
Right Lane: Ron Capps Runs 4.972/304.25, Now #11; Best prior run: 11.035/77.40, Was #17

Force hit the 1,000 foot reflector in round one so he enters round two without a qualifying time. Capps smoked the tires in round one. This time around, both drivers ran like they should.

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Left Lane: Jerry Toliver Runs 5.036/275.90, Now #13; Best prior run: 14.005/67.21, Was #19
Right Lane: Bruce Sarver Runs 5.069/297.09, Now #15; Best prior run: 8.643/92.22, Was #17

Toliver smoked the engine at 1,000 feet. Sarver hopped just a bit at the start but stayed with it the rest of the way.

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Left Lane: Frank Pedregon Runs 5.406/258.67, Now #19; Best prior run: 10.016/80.55, Was #19
Right Lane: Whit Bazemore Runs 4.855/315.42, Now #1; Best prior run: 6.978/115.04, Was #18

Pedregon and Bazemore are on the outside looking in after they both smoked the tires in round one. This time around, Pedregon smoked the engine at 330 feet while Bazemore had a really good run that put him in the number one spot for now.

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Left Lane: Al Hofmann Runs 5.022/292.39, Now #13; Best prior run: 5.176/288.83, Was #18
Right Lane: John Lawson Runs 5.417/289.45, Now #18; Best prior run: 5.126/289.45, Was #17

The bump time is 5.069 seconds and both Lawson and Hofmann ran below that time in round one. Lawson got loose at mid-track. Hofmann ran well enough to move into the top 16.

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Left Lane: Scotty Cannon Runs 4.887/303.84, Now #3; Best prior run: 4.971/298.01, Was #11
Right Lane: Johnny Gray Runs 4.924/283.73, Now #10; Best prior run: 5.034/293.03, Was #14

Both Cannon and Gray looked good during the quarter-mile but Gray blew something out of his engine at 1,000 feet. Still, both made better rounds than they did in round one.

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Left Lane: Gary Densham Runs 4.833/301.60, Now #1; Best prior run: 4.909/307.79, Was #8
Right Lane: Dean Skuza No Time, Now #12; Best prior run: 4.944/304.74, Was #12

Skuza ran a 4.953 time but he took out both reflectors at the finish line so this run does not count. Densham made a great run that put him first in the qualifying order.

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Left Lane: Del Worsham Runs 6.822/122.95, Now #8; Best prior run: 4.906/312.13, Was #8
Right Lane: Bob Gilbertson Runs 4.929/304.94, Now #11; Best prior run: 4.927/295.79, Was #11

Worsham smoked the engine at 330 feet

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Left Lane: Jim Epler Runs 10.872/75.66, Now #7; Best prior run: 4.896/305.01, Was #7
Right Lane: Chuck Etchells Runs 9.304/109.08, Now #9; Best prior run: 4.915/302.48, Was #9

Both drivers smoked the tires big time at 330 feet and shut down.

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Left Lane: Tony Pedregon Runs 5.567/174.37, Now #4; Best prior run: 4.866/305.91, Was #3
Right Lane: Tommy Johnson Jr. Runs 4.843/311.05, Now #2; Best prior run: 4.894/295.79, Was #6

Pedregon smoked the tires a bit at 660 feet and backed off. Johnson made a very strong run to move into second place in the qualifying order.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink



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