GRAND BEND - Top Fuel Qualifying Notes, Session #1

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Fri, 7 Jun 2002, 09:19 PM

Top Fuel Qualifying Notes, Session #1

By Larry Sullivan

GRAND BEND, Ont. - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Top Fuel at the Hooters IHRA Drag Racing Series, 3rd annual Mopar Performance Parts Canadian Nationals presented by Castrol listing lane, driver name, elapsed time, top speed, and position in order following run:

Left Lane: Louie Allison Runs 11.319/76.02, Now #2
Right Lane: Bruce Litton Runs 4.847/298.30, Now #1

7:56 PM The last time Allison went down this track, he ended up doing a full "blowover," the front end of the car climbing skyward until the force of the air flipped it over backward.

Meanwhile, Litton has been busy, fielding a second car for J.R. Todd to drive here this weekend - but J.R. is on the line and not in a driving suit, so we may not see him this round.

Allison launched and shook hard before lifting. No problems were visible in Litton's lane with a relatively soft 0.889 60-foot time and a conservative run to open the show.

Left Lane: Roger Dean Runs 9.975/80.21, Now #3
Right Lane: John Sipple Runs 5.488/235.35, Now #2

Dean shook hard, pedaled, and lost the blower belt. Sipple's car dropped a couple cylinders early and never had a chance, but he ran it all the way through without any apparent damage.

Left Lane: Grant Flowers No Time, Now #6
Right Lane: Paul Romine Runs 14.313/83.41, Now #5

Flowers' car went nowhere on the launch, coasting to a stop before reaching the finish line. Lots of tire smoke for Romine, immediately, his 60-foot time a 1.383.

Left Lane: Clay Millican Runs 4.615/317.23, Now #1
Right Lane: Vicky Fanning Runs 6.055/190.75, Now #4

Jim Bailey is doing color commentary on the PA system and just said, "The only time you can pass that Werner car is on the turnpike," referring to Millican's strong showing last year and almost-perfect season this year. This run demonstrated what he was talking about, the Werner dragster smoothly down the groove with the quickest pass in Canadian drag racing history, eclipsing Bruce Litton's one-year-old track record by four-hundredths of a second. He posted a 0.850 60-foot time and was going 263.23 mph at half track, in just 3.104 seconds. Fanning was two tenths slower over the first 60 feet and then steadily lost ground to the quick, blue dragster.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink