Fri, 8 Oct 2004, 03:03 PM Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #1

By Jim Samuel

MOHNTON, Pa. - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 20th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals listing lane, driver name, elapsed time, top speed, and position in order following run:

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Left Lane: Johnny Gray Runs 10.389/97.74, Now #2
Right Lane: Terry Haddock Runs 6.567/134.82, Now #1

2:30 p.m. - Weather conditions: air temperature 75 degrees, relative humidity 57 percent, barometer 29.71 inches, adjusted altitude 1,567 feet, track temperature 100 degrees.

This is the first Funny Car qualifying session for this event as they never got on the track in September. Gray launched the car and started to spin and smoke the tires at about 100 feet down the track. Haddock made it to mid track, then did the same thing.

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Left Lane: Jim Head Runs 5.271/213.54, Now #2
Right Lane: Jeff Arend Runs 4.881/309.13, Now #1

Both cars looked good going down the track until they got to 1,000 feet. Then Head's Celica started trailing smoke and he let the chute out early. Arend kept going to finish his lap.

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Left Lane: Tony Bartone Runs 11.405/71.30, Now #6
Right Lane: Ron Capps Runs 4.957/292.71, Now #2

Bartone chattered the tires for the first 200 feet, got out of the groove and shut it down. Capps had a little bit of chatter but drove through it to finish his run.

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Left Lane: Jerry Toliver Runs 5.192/231.56, Now #4
Right Lane: Tommy Johnson Jr. Runs 4.996/297.75, Now #3

Toliver had a good run going at mid track but then lost some cylinders and slowed. Johnson had a better run but it looked like he lost some cylinders too.

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Left Lane: Tony Pedregon Runs 8.954/114.92, Now #8
Right Lane: Phil Burkart Runs 5.134/225.30, Now #4

Pedregon launched and immediately started smoking the tires. Burkart's car started smoking at 1,000 feet.

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Left Lane: Tim Wilkerson Runs 5.193/289.14, Now #7
Right Lane: Cruz Pedregon Runs 4.875/309.56, Now #1

Wilkerson chattered the tires for 330 feet but drove through it. He got it hooked up and the car took off for the rest of the way down the track. Pedregon had a good run with just a trace of smoke at the end of the track to move into the top spot in the order for now.

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Left Lane: Gary Densham Runs 4.903/291.07, Now #3
Right Lane: Eric Medlen Runs 6.249/147.26, Now #10

This is Medlen's first qualifying pass here at Maple Grove Raceway. His car started smoking the tires at mid track and he had to back off the throttle. Densham's run was clean from start to finish.

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Left Lane: Whit Bazemore Runs 4.970/281.95, Now #5
Right Lane: Gary Scelzi Runs 8.473/94.48, Now #13

Scelzi started shaking and smoking the tires right away. He tried to drive through it but gave up at the 330-foot mark on the track. Bazemore made it to mid track before he started smoking the rear tires too.

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Left Lane: Del Worsham Runs 4.853/312.42, Now #1
Right Lane: John Force Runs 4.862/315.86, Now #2

This was a pair of good laps down the track and Worsham and Force moved into the first and second spots in the order. At the end of the first session, Worsham is at the top of the order and Tony Pedregon is on the bubble with a bump time of 8.954 seconds.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink



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