Fri, 14 Mar 2003, 10:35 AM Top Alcohol Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #1

By Larry Sullivan

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Notes from round 1 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, and position in order following run:

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Left Lane: Marc White Runs 6.129/174.65, Now #2
Right Lane: Vern Moats Runs 6.024/248.13, Now #1

8:31 AM Yes, we have a Kendall car on the property. No, it's not Frank Manzo. Manzo's new car isn't ready, so we won't see him this weekend. But there is no shortage of top-quality TAFC cars here, ready to run - if you doubt that, just check out the first two pairs in this opening qualifying session.

Moats' car shook and made a hard right turn, but he pedaled and drove through it. White was well ahead to 1,000 feet, running 197.71 mph at half track, but slowed well before the finish line, the problem not evident from here.

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Left Lane: Bob Newberry Runs 5.722/253.16, Now #1
Right Lane: Chuck Cheeseman Runs 5.880/247.86, Now #2

Two good runs, Cheeseman driving through tire shake to salvage his run. Newberry was clocked at 3.783 seconds, 201.52 mph at half track.

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Left Lane: Cy Chesterman Runs 8.286/108.72, Now #5
Right Lane: Jeff Craig Runs 9.245/94.61, Now #6

Lots of tire shake, both lanes. Chesterman's car headed for the centerline.

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Left Lane: Larry Bakke Runs 6.761/218.07, Now #6
Right Lane: Mark Billington Runs 5.947/243.63, Now #3

Billington lost a lot of ground on the first half of the run, shaking and driving out of it, then came on strong on the top half. Bakke shook and never did fully recover from it.

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Left Lane: Charles Gambino Runs 5.918/238.15, Now #3
Right Lane: Jim Sickles Runs 13.033/63.28, Now #10

This is Gambino's debut in NHRA national event competition, best known for competing in the IHRA Pro Outlaw competition in several different, wild altereds. He made a fairly good run, while Sickles shook and smoked the tires.

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Left Lane: Bruce Carlson No Time, Now #12
Right Lane: Paul Lee Runs 5.910/246.84, Now #3

Carlson made his burnout, backed up, and then starter Rick Stewart looked under his car and signaled him to shut it off, fluid under the car. Lee made a nice run, no obvious problems.

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Left Lane: Scott Woodington No Time, Now #13
Right Lane: Michael Ferro Runs 5.986/244.56, Now #6

Woodington's car is stark white, just the numbers and mandatory decals. When they fired the engine, it went to high idle and stayed there, a crew member finally yanking the magneto wire loose to shut it off (ouch! that had to hurt). Ferro's car was shaking and dancing to about 300 feet, where he pedaled and tamed it down.

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Left Lane: Thomas Frickenschmidt Runs 7.082/240.77, Now #10

Frickenschmidt is the 15th car to make it to the water box this round, two of them shutting off without making a pass. He rolled the beams, killing his elapsed time with a 2.061 60-foot time, the car laboring in the first half of the run.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink



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