Fri, Oct 23, 10:08 PM ENNIS - Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session # 1

By Rick Green It's A Quick Field Already

ENNIS, Texas - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Funny Car at the 13th annual NHRA Revell Nationals, listing lane, driver name, elapsed time, top speed, position in order following run:

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Left Lane: Jerry Toliver Runs 9.886/ 79.78 Psn # 2
Right Lane: Don Sosenka Runs 5.379/281.51 Psn # 1

4:02 PM What a matchup - Alfred E. Newman vs. Mr. Magoo! Mr. Magoo wins this one, Alfred E. up in smoke after 100 feet and fishtailing violently, barely missing the wall. Nice first pass for Sosenko, at least as much of it as we could see through Toliver's tire smoke.

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Left Lane: Al Segrini No Time Psn # 4
Right Lane: Chuck Etchells Runs 4.931/308.00 Psn # 1

Segrini is the "retro-setup" racer, running a single magneto and huge fuel pump. Didn't work here, the car boiling the tires instantly. No problems in the right lane, Etchells with a very nice first pass, right down the groove.

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Left Lane: Frank Pedregon No Time Psn # 6
Right Lane: Glenn Mikres No Time Psn # 4

Well, Pedregon and the "Geronimo" team were out there, ready to run, and then they pulled the car to the side of the staging lanes and Wyatt rolled up.

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Left Lane: Jack Wyatt Runs 13.148/ 56.61 Psn # 5
Right Lane: Glenn Mikres Runs 5.305/269.46 Psn # 2

Okay, both these cars fired their engines and made burnouts, and the Geronimo crew then pushed their car back into line, so it appears they were just out of order.

Wyatt launched, shook hard, and called it off. Mikres made a good opening pass, smooth and clean.

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Left Lane: Frank Pedregon Runs 6.966/128.13 Psn # 5
Right Lane: Tom Hoover Runs 4.938/296.73 Psn # 2

New member of the four-second club here, Hoover's previous best a 5.044. He may be getting second thoughts about retiring at the end of the season with runs like that one. That closes out the sixteen spots in the Funny Car elite group after five years, the first Funny Car four run on October 1, 1993. Hoover normally shuts off early, but with that speed he must have driven it out the back door.

Not much good about Pedregon's run, an early pedal job getting the tires hooked back up, but then a cloud of death smoke from 300 feet on signaling the end of the engine. The Safety Safari rolls once again.

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Left Lane: Vicky Fanning No Time Psn #10
Right Lane: Del Worsham Runs 4.988/272.56 Psn # 3

Fanning lost traction after 100 feet and coasted through. Worsham made a nice run - look like the right lane is the hot lane today.

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Left Lane: Jim Epler Runs 5.332/301.40 Psn # 6
Right Lane: Dale Creasy, Jr. Runs 5.221/281.16 Psn # 4

Creasy's car took a long time to fire, the starter motor spinning madly before it finally began to cackle. Epler got out about 200 feet, began to shake, got sideways, and pedaled his way out of it to post a huge speed. Nice, safe opening pass for Creasy.

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Left Lane: John Force Runs 5.013/300.50 Psn # 4
Right Lane: Ron Capps Runs 5.214/253.73 Psn # 5

The race for the championship squares off here, Force running the gold "limited edition" body, the Elvis body retired after being beaten twice. These two were together to 1,000 feet and then the Copenhagen Racing Camaro dropped a cylinder or nipped a piston, lots of raw fuel in the air and the Castrol GTX Mustang pulled ahead to get the win light.

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Left Lane: Randy Anderson Runs 5.131/291.35 Psn # 5
Right Lane: Whit Bazemore Runs 15.308/ 70.72 Psn #14

Bazemore lost traction immediately. Randy's run was no record-setter, but with the problems he's had this season, they are probably glad to have that one to tune from.

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Left Lane: Tim Wilkerson Runs 4.957/292.68 Psn # 3
Right Lane: Tony Pedregon Runs 5.051/296.34 Psn # 6

About the only difference between these two runs was that Wilkerson was a tenth quicker - both went right down the groove and both crew chiefs will have a good baseline to tune from.

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Left Lane: Dean Skuza Runs 5.717/173.81 Psn #14
Right Lane: Al Hofmann Runs 5.149/298.70 Psn # 8

These two were side-by-side to half track and then there was a puff of raw fuel from Skuza's headers and his engine went silent - possibly a broken blower belt. No visible problems in the right lane, Hofmann's crew chief apparently having solved the clutch disk problems that plagued that team earlier in the season.

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Left Lane: Cruz Pedregon Runs 4.948/311.41 Psn # 3

Only a couple left-lane singles left to close out this round. Nice pass by the Interstate Batteries Firebird, clean, straight, and very fast.

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Left Lane: Gary Densham Runs 9.607/ 84.92 Psn #17

4:54 PM Densham closes out the first round by making a good decision, choosing to abandon the run when he lost traction and began getting severely sideways.




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