Sun, Nov 15, 03:43 PM POMONA - Federal-Mogul Dragster Round 2 Eliminations

By Larry Sullivan Three Injected Cars in Semifinals

POMONA, Calif. - Results of round 2 eliminations in Federal-Mogul Dragster at the 34th annual NHRA Winston Finals:

 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
  10 Cliff Bingham       5.647 247.93  Q   2 Mark Woods          5.484 248.13
   (D Nicholson ) 0.466  5.658 251.11 E1   (D Shields   ) 0.485  5.564 246.64
                  0.478  5.820 242.84 E2 *****WINNER***** 0.503  5.486 243.96

2:24 PM We open this round with a blown alcohol car in the left lane, an injected nitro car in the right, Bingham running a Fontana engine instead of the Chrysler hemi. Woods took his time staging, reversing the usual starting line game, and then just drove away from Bingham, whose car was sluggish off the starting line.

 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   3 Rick Santos         5.492 255.68  Q  11 Mark Hentges        5.680 248.07
   (M Troxel    ) 0.512  5.543 251.46 E1   (D Hitchman  ) 0.487  5.612 247.66
 *****WINNER***** 0.470  5.588 252.31 E2                  0.464  5.631 233.64

This race was about dead-even to half track, but then Santos' top-end power came in and Hentges fell off the pace, Santos winning by about 13 feet. The Safety Safari retrieved a blower belt from Hentges lane, so it looks like that was his downfall. Hentges ran injected nitro earlier this year, but is running a blown alcohol combination here. Santos advances, but loses lane choice to Woods by a tenth of a second, shake in the early part of the run knocking about a tenth of a second off his elapsed time.

 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   4 Shane Gay           5.503 250.97  Q  12 Steve Faria         5.687 239.36
   (M Strasburg ) 0.461  5.505 254.66 E1   (J Costanza  ) 0.433  5.650 245.90
 *****WINNER***** 0.454  5.431 259.66 E2                  0.414  5.649 242.71

Faria faces his second injected nitro car of the event, taking John Costanza out in round one. Starter Rick Stewart took a look under Gay's car, checking for a possible leak, but cleared the car to run. Faria came through with a great light, but just didn't have the ponies to stay with the In-N-Out Burger dragster today, the car delivering its best speed of the year on a very stout pass.

 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   1 Rick Henkelman      5.411 260.49  Q   9 Jay Payne           5.614 250.48
   (S Federlin  ) 0.505  5.437 253.80 E1   (D Carlson   ) 0.457  5.709 248.75
 *****WINNER***** 0.482  5.535 250.06 E2                  0.472  5.686 249.51

As usual, Henkelman got an awful burnout, but that doesn't seem to have much to do with how well he runs. Payne was away first, but just barely, and even a dropped cylinder on the left side at half track couldn't keep Henkelman from getting the win light. But he loses lane choice to another injected nitro car, Gay, in the semifinals - and Payne moves on to Federal-Mogul Funny Car.

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