Fri, 19 Oct 2001, 05:49 PM DALLAS - Top Fuel Qualifying Notes, Session #1

By Rick Green

ENNIS, Texas - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Top Fuel at the 16th annual O'Reilly Fall Nationals presented by Castrol Syntec listing lane, driver name, elapsed time, top speed, and position in order following run:

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Left Lane: Mark Kinsella Runs 5.195/241.02, Now #2
Right Lane: Don Lampus Runs 4.786/302.01, Now #1

Lampus with his first pass of the season and is going to be making a big announcement concerning next year shortly. From what I hear he will be running the rest of the races this year. Lampus with a strong pass until about half track and then had a whisp of tire smoke, but kept his foot in it and drove it on through. Kinsella with no apparent problems.

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Right Lane: Cory McClenathan Runs 5.546/190.83, Now #3

Cory with his first pass of the year driving Bill Ancona's Top Fueler. He dropped cylinders right off the starting line and never picked them up.

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Left Lane: Brady Kalivoda Runs 5.000/268.17, Now #2
Right Lane: Steve Smith Runs 5.321/273.39, Now #4

Kalivoda started to lose traction around 330 feet and pedaled it. Smith had a couple holes out right off the starting line and never picked them back up.

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Left Lane: Joe Hartley Runs 10.101/86.93, Now #6
Right Lane: Scott Weis Runs 11.109/97.56, Now #7

They are both up in smoke by 100 feet.

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Left Lane: Chris Karamesines Runs 5.153/266.58, Now #3
Right Lane: Tim Gibson Runs 6.888/117.01, Now #7

Karamesines started to loose traction and pedaled it at least one time. Gibson's car just went silent around half track. I did not see it, but maybe he lost the blower belt.

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Left Lane: Andrew Cowin Runs 4.681/316.78, Now #1
Right Lane: Rhonda Hartman-Smith Runs 4.691/311.52, Now #2

A couple real good looking passes here with Cowin just a tick ahead of Hartman-Smith. Rhonda was quicker to half track, but Cowin had the big top end charge.

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Left Lane: Tony Schumacher Runs 4.592/320.62, Now #1
Right Lane: Doug Herbert Runs 6.326/132.66, Now #10

Herbert started to smoke the tires around half track and clicked it off. Schumacher with a good pass keeping the candles lit and the Goodyears stuck all the way through the quarter-mile.

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Left Lane: Darrell Russell Runs 4.678/310.77, Now #2
Right Lane: Mike Dunn Runs 10.486/83.14, Now #14

Dunn is up in smoke by 150 feet and clicked it off. Russel with good looking pass getting from point A to B with no problems for the number two spot for now.

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Left Lane: Doug Kalitta Runs 5.092/205.47, Now #8
Right Lane: Gary Scelzi Runs 4.631/318.02, Now #2

Kalitta with the quickest 60-foot time of the round so far, but then started to haze the tires around half track. When he lost traction the rpms when way up and it spit the blower belt off. Scelzi is able to get the power to the track and keep it stuck to jump into the number two spot.

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Left Lane: Larry Dixon Runs 9.404/86.17, Now #16
Right Lane: Kenny Bernstein Runs 4.647/321.65, Now #3

Here we go with number one and two in the point chase and Bernstein with a great baseline pass here to tune from for the rest of the weekend. Dixon got up on the big rear slicks and then started to shake and lose traction and clicked it off.

That wraps up round one with Schumacher on top and Dixon on the bump.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink



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