Fri, 2 May 2003, 05:59 PM Top Alcohol Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #2

By Bob Orme

COMMERCE, Ga. - Notes from round 2 qualifying in Top Alcohol Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 23rd annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals presented by Pontiac 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:

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Left Lane: Bob Newberry Runs 5.662/253.56, Now #1; Best prior run: 5.707/252.43, Was #2
Right Lane: Mark Billington Runs 6.017/238.05, Now #6; Best prior run: 6.074/237.50, Was #6

There were no apparent problems for either driver here. Newberry moves into the top spot for now.

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Left Lane: Jay Payne Runs 5.686/254.28, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.723/254.42, Was #3
Right Lane: Jim Sickles Runs 6.077/184.80, Now #5; Best prior run: 5.857/248.61, Was #5

Sickles blew the burst panel at 1000 feet, with a sizeable flash of fire coming from under the car. The Safety Safari is rolling to do some track clean up. 5:42 PM

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Left Lane: Frank Manzo Runs 5.695/256.94, Now #3; Best prior run: 5.698/257.58, Was #3
Right Lane: Chuck Cheeseman Runs 5.845/217.70, Now #5; Best prior run: 8.908/97.85, Was #8

5:48 PM Cheeseman was moving around his lane quite a bit in the middle section of the track. His engine went "pop" at about 1200 feet.

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Left Lane: Jeff Craig Runs 5.741/251.86, Now #4; Best prior run: 5.837/250.37, Was #4
Right Lane: Paul Lee Runs 5.856/247.79, Now #6; Best prior run: 6.098/243.99, Was #8

Lee's car moved toward the wall at 300 feet but he was able to quickly get it back into the groove.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink



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