Sun, 15 Oct 2006, 01:59 PM Top Fuel Round 2 Eliminations

By Dan Bennett

DINWIDDIE, Va. - Results of round 2 eliminations in Top Fuel at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, Inaugural Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    9 Cory McClenathan                       13 David Baca                   
E2   ****WINNER****  0.083  4.723 300.33                     0.055 11.993  76.15
 Prior rounds:
E1    (D Grubnic   ) 0.060  4.592 311.63      (T Schumacher) 0.115  4.700 270.64
 Qualified:             #8  4.569 321.73                       #16  4.661 291.82

Weather conditions: air temperature 65 degrees, relative humidity 29 percent, barometer 30.12 inches, adjusted altitude 236 feet, track temperature 92 degrees.

Baca goes up in smoke by 100 feet and Cory goes to the semifinals.

The Fram car may have been backed off considerably from looking at the ET, but Cory gets the win and is still racing.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   10 Rod Fuller                             91 Larry Dixon                  
E2   ****WINNER****  0.078  4.593 305.84                     0.068 12.270  86.43
 Prior rounds:
E1    (D Herbert   ) 0.129  4.582 310.05      (S Torrence  ) 0.111  4.603 308.78
 Qualified:             #3  4.543 317.79                        #6  4.557 314.75

Dixon strikes the tires at almost the exact spot as Baca and the race is over by 200 feet.

Fuller continues to be consistently excellent this weekend.

The Valvoline car is running like a bracket car on crack. Did that make sense?

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  373 J.R. Todd                             507 Melanie Troxel               
E2   ****WINNER****  0.103  4.541 318.17                     0.126  4.625 300.40
 Prior rounds:
E1    (B Lagana Jr ) 0.111  4.516 324.05      (T Buff      ) 0.081  4.560 308.07
 Qualified:             #2  4.528 318.39                        #7  4.567 290.19

The winner of this race gets Hot Rod Fuller next round. Thing is, both these drivers are pretty hot right now, too.

Even though it looked from here as if Melanie was ahead until the last few feet, the numbers show that J.R. was always ahead.

Another classic race with clean, straight, extremely fast cars.

1:52 p.m.

J.R. Todd's incremental times: 60ft-0.838 sec., 330ft-2.142, 660ft-3.062/274.39mph, 1,000ft-3.846
Melanie Troxel's incremental times: 60ft-0.860 sec., 330ft-2.162, 660ft-3.088/271.41mph, 1,000ft-3.894

J.R. Todd's MOV: 0.1072 seconds (approximately 47 feet).

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    7 Brandon Bernstein                       3 Doug Kalitta                 
E2                   0.084  6.553 122.09     ****WINNER****  0.038  4.601 308.85
 Prior rounds:
E1    (M Lucas     ) 0.098  4.562 315.05      (H Will      ) 0.089  4.587 309.20
 Qualified:             #5  4.552 311.34                        #4  4.549 309.56

Tools and beer, two red cars line up against each other. This is a big time race regarding the championship.

Doug serves notice that he WANTS that ring. Check the reaction time!

Bernstein smoked the tires at about 300 feet and then there was a flash and it was all over.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink



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