Fri, 23 May 2003, 03:13 PM Top Alcohol Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #1

By Larry Sullivan

TOPEKA, Kan. - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Top Alcohol Funny Car 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, and position in order following run:

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Left Lane: Steve Griboski Runs 6.129/231.24, Now #1
Right Lane: Kevin Richardson No Time, Now #2

Current weather conditions: 73 degrees, 60 percent relative humidity, the barometer 30.12 inches, under scattered clouds.

Richardson left before the tree was activated. Griboski made a clean run to start the weekend.

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Left Lane: Bruce Carlson Runs 6.181/227.08, Now #2
Right Lane: Jason Rupert Runs 6.276/235.72, Now #3

Carlson's car bounced violently at half track. Rupert shook hard early in the run.

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Left Lane: Ben Harper Runs 5.960/238.89, Now #2
Right Lane: Tate Branch Runs 5.791/248.29, Now #1

Two nice runs, clean and straight.

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Left Lane: Thomas Frickenschmidt Runs 5.862/246.48, Now #2
Right Lane: Cy Chesterman Runs 12.971/65.50, Now #7

Frickenschmidt made a nice run, right down the groove. Chesterman shook hard and called it off.

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Left Lane: Marc White Runs 5.730/251.44, Now #1
Right Lane: Ron Morrison Runs 6.111/234.90, Now #5

White went right down the groove and into the top spot.

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Left Lane: Jay Payne Runs 5.811/251.06, Now #3
Right Lane: Dale Brand Runs 6.250/243.15, Now #9

Good run by Payne, though he probably wanted a bit more out of it. Brand's car fishtailed violently in the middle of the run, almost crossing the center line.

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Left Lane: Kirk Williams Runs 5.822/248.84, Now #4
Right Lane: Vern Moats Runs 5.885/246.53, Now #6

Two clean runs, both cars a little loose, but nothing serious.

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Left Lane: Steve Gasparrelli Runs 5.683/254.38, Now #1

Last car. Holy cow!!! Where did that come from? Gasparrelli went right down the groove and took over the top spot on a picture-perfect run.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink



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