Sat, 23 Oct 1999, 04:59 PM DALLAS - Federal-Mogul Funny Car Round 1 Eliminations

By Ed Dykes

ENNIS, Texas - Results of round 1 eliminations in Federal-Mogul Funny Car at the 14th annual O'Reilly Fall Nationals presented by Castrol Syntec:

  
 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   1 Vern Moats          5.687 253.44  Q   16 Jimmy Jones         5.842 244.10
                  0.542  5.718 251.25  E1 *****WINNER***** 0.427  5.801 244.63

You're not going to win many races when you give up over a tenth at the start, and that's exactly what happened here. You could argue that Jones' reaction time was exceptional for one of these cars, but regardless Moats was too far in the hole to dig himself out in 1320'.

  
 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   3 Paul Gill           5.695 255.10  Q   14 Fran Monaghan       5.839 246.44
 *****WINNER***** 0.485  5.776 254.23  E1                  0.490 11.761  69.69

Monaghan was up in smoke early, and all he could do was watch Gill drive off into the distance.

  
 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   2 Pat Austin          5.694 253.02  Q   15 Pete Swayne         5.840 248.34
 *****WINNER***** 0.441  5.678 251.25  E1                  0.467 12.970  76.16

Swayne never had a chance here, the car jumped straight up in the air and started smoking the tires almost immediately, so Austin advances for the umpteenth time in his career.

  
 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   4 Cy Chesterman       5.695 254.74  Q   13 Randy Fleming       5.830 251.74
 *****WINNER***** 0.467  5.648 254.52  E1                  0.463 11.191  61.98

Fleming was right there for the first hundred feet, then his Firebird started shaking and he was done.

  
 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   5 Chuck Cheeseman     5.715 250.00  Q   12 Larry Miner         5.829 251.11
 *****WINNER***** 0.525  5.784 246.44  E1                  0.506  5.905 231.36

Miner manages to successfully navigate the tricky right lane, coming up only a tenth short here. That's still a lot, but that's about the best performance we've seen in the right side so far this round.

  
 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   7 Marc White          5.727 254.74  Q   10 Steve Gasparrelli   5.777 250.34
                  0.407  5.988 249.10  E1 *****WINNER***** 0.487  5.807 246.23

White had a telepathic reaction time this time, but it still wasn't enough to get him to the finish first.

  
 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   6 Jay Payne           5.720 249.37  Q   11 Frank Manzo         5.787 252.88
                  0.453  5.903 225.79  E1 *****WINNER***** 0.432  5.707 253.09

Manzo steps up and runs his quickest of the weekend, just when Payne didn't need it.

  
 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   8 Steve Harker        5.738 250.83  Q    9 John Weaver         5.766 248.48
 *****WINNER***** 0.458  5.727 251.25  E1                  0.498  5.695 249.58

And we finish off with the closest match of the round, just 0.008 separates these two at the finish. That's barely three feet, Harker's holeshot leading Weaver from start to finish.




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