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TOPEKA, Kan. - Notes from final, round 3 qualifying in Top Alcohol Dragster at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 15th annual O'Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals presented by Castrol GTX 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: Keith Stark Runs 7.234/131.20, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.348/268.12, Was #2 Right Lane: Robert Badgett Runs 5.510/259.96, Now #13; Best prior run: 5.577/249.49, Was #14 2:14 PM Current weather conditions: 71 degrees, 74 percent relative humidity, the barometer 29.92 inches under partly cloudy skies. The final qualifying session for the TAFC racers was cancelled because of the rain today and the fact that only sixteen cars were here. Not so for the TAD folks, with 24 of them vying for 16 spots on the ladder, the bump at the beginning of this final session Mitch Myers' 5.604. Stark shook violently and shut it off.
Badgett made a nice run to move one spot further from the bump spot. Left Lane: John Haley Runs 5.555/246.93, Now #8; Best prior run: 5.450/261.57, Was #8 Right Lane: Gary Cooper Runs 6.152/193.27, Now #19; Best prior run: 5.696/240.85, Was #19 Something came off Cooper's car at half track and he slowed - looked almost like a blower belt, but we know that's not possible on his nitro burner. Okay run for Haley, but he's already run better this weekend, by a tenth of a second and 15 mph. Left Lane: Bill Reichert Runs 5.289/274.50, Now #1; Best prior run: 5.310/274.61, Was #1 Right Lane: Duane Shields Runs 5.508/258.12, Now #10; Best prior run: 5.481/259.21, Was #10 The #1 qualifier once again improved his hold on the top spot with a stunning run, his second 274 mph pass in a row. Shields made a good run, but failed to improve and will start eliminations on the bottom half of the ladder. Left Lane: Larry Traugott Runs 5.670/249.26, Now #18; Best prior run: 5.674/250.00, Was #18 Right Lane: Mitch Myers Runs 5.551/247.02, Now #14; Best prior run: 5.604/239.23, Was #16 Traugott wanted in and Myers wanted off the bump spot. Traugott improved, but only four thousandths of a second, remaining on the outside. Myers made a nice run to move off the bump spot, but only a couple spots. That put James Thompson on the bubble at 5.580. Left Lane: Darryl Hitchman Runs 6.474/185.08, Now #20; Best prior run: 5.755/235.72, Was #20 Right Lane: Tim Rudy Runs 5.608/235.64, Now #17; Best prior run: 5.663/236.84, Was #17 Both cars dropped cylinders at the start, Rudy just one, Hitchman two or more. Rudy improved once again, but will be first alternate, at best. Left Lane: Jared Dreher Runs 5.679/246.26, Now #19; Best prior run: 5.807/242.02, Was #21 Right Lane: Gene Snow Runs 5.947/216.55, Now #22; Best prior run: 9.026/90.21, Was #23 Snow has two modes for his car, very bad and very good, not much in between. This weekend he never got it out of the "bad" mode, dropping cylinders immediately once again and unable to improve enough to make the field for this evening's first round of eliminations. Dreher made a huge improvement, but still came up short of the cut. Left Lane: Shelly Howard Runs 5.452/257.53, Now #7; Best prior run: 5.431/259.21, Was #7 Right Lane: David Wells Runs 5.386/262.64, Now #5; Best prior run: 5.393/262.59, Was #6 Two of the best blown cars in the country squared off here...It was a good drag race, Wells getting the win light and moving one rung up the ladder (for now, anyway). Left Lane: Mike Bowers Runs 5.798/235.02, Now #11; Best prior run: 5.486/246.66, Was #11 Right Lane: Todd Datweiler Runs 5.390/261.78, Now #6; Best prior run: 5.386/260.97, Was #6 Bowers moved through the water and never did spin the tires. He backed up, but starter Rick Stewart signaled him to stage without trying again.Bowers dropped a cylinder on the right side at the hit and never did pick it up. Datweiler didn't improve, but did show nice consistency, his three qualifying runs between 5.431 and 5.386. Left Lane: Morgan Lucas Runs 5.458/262.18, Now #9; Best prior run: 5.472/257.68, Was #9 Right Lane: Ed Schmeeckle Runs 5.660/247.88, Now #18; No Prior Run Schmeeckle finally got down the track after being pushed away on his first try and breaking the throttle cable on the second, but it wasn't enough to get him into the field. Nice run by Lucas, improving slightly while remaining ninth. He, too, showed nice consistency, his three runs between 5.473 and 5.458. Left Lane: Jeff Wilson Runs 5.513/255.10, Now #12; Best prior run: 5.494/255.77, Was #12 Right Lane: Jeff Bohr Runs 5.622/250.41, Now #15; Best prior run: 5.574/253.90, Was #15 Two more good blown cars here, both slowing a bit from their best runs, yesterday afternoon. Left Lane: Alan Bradshaw Runs 5.321/254.38, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.385/261.42, Was #4 Right Lane: James Thompson Runs 5.533/257.19, Now #14; Best prior run: 5.580/257.63, Was #16 Last pair. Thompson probably didn't want to run Bill Reichert this evening. Bradshaw was already well up in the field and was a threat to take over the top spot. Bradshaw trailed unburned fuel from the start and still improved enough over his previous best to move up to the second rung of the ladder. Thompson made a clean run to move the "Pepper Express" off the bump spot and into a first-round matchup with Keith Stark
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