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Sat, 6 Oct 2001, 06:16 PM

READING - Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #3

By Jim Samuel

MOHNTON, Pa. - Notes from round 3 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:

Left Lane: Jim Epler Runs 4.891/306.46, Now #7; Best prior run: 4.896/305.01, Was #7
Right Lane: Dean Skuza Runs 4.889/314.02, Now #6; Best prior run: 4.944/304.74, Was #12

1:41 PM 60 degrees and 55 percent humidity at the start of round three of funny car qualifying. Skuza improved his previous qualifying time by six-hundredths of a second to move up in the field.

Left Lane: Del Worsham Runs 4.778/310.34, Now #1; Best prior run: 4.906/312.13, Was #9
Right Lane: Terry Haddock Runs 5.427/208.88, Now #20; No Prior Run

Worsham ran a career-best ET by one-thousandth of a second. He smoked the engine a bit as he crossed the finish line. Haddock had not made a qualifying run before round three and this run was not good enough to get him into the field.

Left Lane: Tony Pedregon Runs 4.783/294.43, Now #2; Best prior run: 4.866/305.91, Was #5
Right Lane: Chuck Etchells Runs 8.513/100.01, Now #10; Best prior run: 4.915/302.48, Was #10

Etchells smoked the tires badly at 330 feet. Pedregon had a good run going but smoked the engine at 1,000 feet.

Left Lane: Frank Pedregon Runs 5.049/245.81, Now #17; Best prior run: 5.406/258.67, Was #19
Right Lane: John Lawson Runs 5.044/302.01, Now #16; Best prior run: 5.126/289.45, Was #18

After two rounds of qualifying, neither driver was in the field. Lawson ran well enough to make the field but he is on the bubble with a bump time of 5.044 seconds.

Left Lane: Dale Creasy Jr. Runs 9.850/81.55, Now #19; Best prior run: 5.055/294.56, Was #18
Right Lane: Bruce Sarver Runs 4.801/317.19, Now #3; Best prior run: 5.069/297.09, Was #19

Creasy and Sarver were both on the outside looking in, with a bump time of 5.044 seconds. Sarver not only made the field, he ran a career-best ET to move into the number three position.

Left Lane: Jerry Toliver Runs 10.022/80.38, Now #16; Best prior run: 5.036/275.90, Was #16
Right Lane: Ron Capps Runs 11.884/73.47, Now #14; Best prior run: 4.972/304.25, Was #14

Toliver started this run sitting on the bubble and he stayed there. These were two ugly runs with both drivers shutting down by the time they hit 330-feet.

Left Lane: Al Hofmann Runs 4.920/297.94, Now #12; Best prior run: 5.022/292.39, Was #15

Hofmann made a solid run to move up three spots in the qualifying order.

Left Lane: John Force Runs 4.812/314.02, Now #4; Best prior run: 4.893/308.78, Was #10
Right Lane: Johnny Gray Runs 4.906/303.91, Now #11; Best prior run: 4.924/283.73, Was #13

Force came into the round in an uncharacteristic 10th place. This run was not particularly strong but it was enough to move him up to fourth place.

Left Lane: Scotty Cannon Runs 9.032/85.64, Now #8; Best prior run: 4.887/303.84, Was #8
Right Lane: Whit Bazemore Runs 4.762/324.67, Now #1; Best prior run: 4.855/315.42, Was #7

Cannon smoked the tires big time at 330 feet and backed off. Bazemore bettered his previous time by nine hundredths of a second and moved into first place.

Left Lane: Gary Densham Runs 10.814/83.65, Now #6; Best prior run: 4.833/301.60, Was #6
Right Lane: Tommy Johnson Jr. No Time, Now #7; Best prior run: 4.843/311.05, Was #7

Densham smoked the tires coming off the line and shut down. Johnson moved about two feet off the line and his engine blew.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink