Fri, 14 Mar 2003, 02:41 PM Top Alcohol Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #2

By Larry Sullivan

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Notes from round 2 qualifying in Top Alcohol Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 34th annual MAC Tools NHRA Gatornationals 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: Paul Lee Runs 5.821/248.27, Now #3; Best prior run: 5.910/246.84, Was #3
Right Lane: Cy Chesterman Runs 5.637/253.95, Now #1; Best prior run: 8.286/108.72, Was #11

1:13 PM Chesterman had problems on his first run, shaking and skating around, but there were no problems with this one, an awesome effort. Nothing wrong with Lee's run, but he was way back at the finish line. Cy Chesterman's incremental times: 60ft-0.958 sec., 330ft-2.495, 660ft-3.714/203.38mph, 1,000ft-4.753.

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Left Lane: Mark Billington Runs 5.891/246.44, Now #5; Best prior run: 5.947/243.63, Was #6
Right Lane: Larry Bakke Runs 6.956/162.45, Now #10; Best prior run: 6.761/218.07, Was #10

Nice pass by Billington, picking up a bit over his first pass. No help for Bakke, however, his car slow off the line and rapidly falling back.

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Left Lane: Jeff Craig Runs 5.743/252.59, Now #4; Best prior run: 9.245/94.61, Was #12
Right Lane: Marc White Runs 5.738/248.34, Now #3; Best prior run: 6.129/174.65, Was #9

Two nice runs, side-by-side.

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Left Lane: Jim Sickles Runs 5.816/248.00, Now #5; Best prior run: 13.033/63.28, Was #13
Right Lane: Bob Newberry Runs 5.654/253.59, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.722/253.16, Was #2

Newberry came "this close" to re-taking the top spot. Sickles got a very good run in this time around, smooth and straight.

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Left Lane: Chuck Cheeseman Runs 5.702/251.74, Now #3; Best prior run: 5.880/247.86, Was #7
Right Lane: Bruce Carlson Runs 5.967/234.00, Now #10; Best prior run: 0.000/0.00, Was #15

Two more good runs, both cars cleanly down the track.

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Left Lane: Vern Moats Runs 6.319/169.49, Now #12; Best prior run: 6.024/248.13, Was #12
Right Lane: Scott Woodington Runs 6.533/213.27, Now #13; Best prior run: 0.000/0.00, Was #16

Turns out the prior pair wasn't quite as clean as it looked, Carlson's car leaving a light trail of oil in the right lane. Moats was on a pretty good pass, 3.833/194.88 at half track, but then his engine went silent. Woodington struggled off the line and his car never did come up to full song.

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Left Lane: Michael Ferro Runs 6.136/241.09, Now #12; Best prior run: 5.986/244.56, Was #11
Right Lane: Thomas Frickenschmidt Runs 5.959/244.36, Now #10; Best prior run: 7.082/240.77, Was #15

Last pair. Frickenschmidt went about 1,500 feet to get to the other end, his car using both sides of the groove. Ferro's run looked smoother, but wasn't as quick.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink



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