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NHRA LODRS IHRA PR-DRAG Drag News Photos
Fri, 10 Nov 2006, 04:29 PM

Top Alcohol Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #2
By Darryl Jackman





POMONA, Calif. - Notes from round 2 qualifying in Top Alcohol Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 42nd annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals 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:
Left Lane: Mert Littlefield Runs 6.042/226.58, Now #16; Best prior run: 5.893/232.43, Was #16
Right Lane: Larry Miner Runs 10.222/100.99, Now #10; Best prior run: 5.787/247.66, Was #10

12:29 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 74 degrees, relative humidity 35 percent, barometer 29.19 inches, adjusted altitude 2,020 feet, track temperature 98 degrees.

Littlefield starts the session on the bump and after this hit he's still there. Miner struck the tires at the hit and coasted on down.


Left Lane: Mike Drake Runs 5.875/248.29, Now #16; Best prior run: 5.980/243.37, Was #18
Right Lane: Mark Woznichak Runs 5.908/224.43, Now #4; Best prior run: 5.705/249.26, Was #4

Drake appeared to get a late start on the burnout and the tracks are barely far enough back that the crew can line him up. Drake made the situation work and he bumps in on the bubble. Woz slows a ton from hit hit on Thursday. Couldn't see what happened but it did sound like the rpms got away from one driver or the other before the shift.

Left Lane: Shawn Jones Runs 5.728/249.63, Now #7; Best prior run: 5.816/250.09, Was #14
Right Lane: Steve Gasparrelli Runs 5.731/246.80, Now #8; Best prior run: 6.750/149.45, Was #22

Both drivers and teams will be pretty happy after this hit. Both get down the track and into the top half. That bumps Drake and puts Stickler on the spot.

Left Lane: Dennis Taylor Runs 5.787/247.43, Now #13; No Prior Run
Right Lane: Hank Coolidge Runs 5.780/250.09, Now #10; Best prior run: 5.756/247.93, Was #10

Taylor overcomes his wall scraping incident from yesterday and comes back here in session two and makes the show. Coolidge slows from his first.

Left Lane: Doug Gordon Runs 7.342/129.95, Now #9; Best prior run: 5.751/249.35, Was #9
Right Lane: Sean Bellemeur Runs 5.787/252.00, Now #12; No Prior Run

Gordon has his Camaro just make a right hand turn on him at 330. He had to lift and coasted to the other end. Bellemeur shakes off his Thursday issues and bumps Burnett. Harrington is now on the bubble.

Left Lane: John Patton Runs 5.874/245.67, Now #11; Best prior run: 5.774/250.18, Was #11
Right Lane: Nancy Matter Runs 6.082/244.47, Now #24; Best prior run: 7.702/105.11, Was #25

Patton loses a tenth and remains #11. Matter moved out of the groove at the hit and struggled to get the car back to the center. She's down to one last shot later today.

Left Lane: John Weaver Runs 5.736/249.07, Now #10; Best prior run: 5.801/241.93, Was #15
Right Lane: Roger Bateman Runs 5.662/253.42, Now #3; Best prior run: 5.936/249.35, Was #21

Bateman is the biggest news of the pair as he goes from #21 to #3 just like that. He was out of the groove to the right early in the run and was pretty close to the wall at the stripe. Weaver gets well away from the bump. Harrington is bumped and Taylor is on the bump.

Left Lane: Clint Thompson Runs 12.491/68.59, Now #22; Best prior run: 5.988/248.02, Was #22
Right Lane: Brian Hough Runs 5.651/255.73, Now #1; Best prior run: 5.623/253.80, Was #1

Hough was #1 coming in and falls just a bit short of his first run. Thompson rattled the tires right into smoke at the hit and coasted on out.

Left Lane: Bernie Harrington Runs 5.777/246.80, Now #14; Best prior run: 5.804/245.49, Was #17
Right Lane: David Ray Runs 8.914/99.13, Now #6; Best prior run: 5.710/251.81, Was #6

Harrington goes from #17 back into the field was a run that saw the Camaro wandering the lane a bit after half track. Ray shook the tires and called it off early.

Left Lane: Bret Williamson Runs 5.887/232.47, Now #21; Best prior run: 6.321/162.94, Was #25
Right Lane: Paul Anderson Runs 6.125/242.15, Now #24; Best prior run: 6.000/241.63, Was #23

Anderson shook his brains out at the 1-2 shift and had to lift. He finished the run but remains well outside of the field. Williamson improves but is well off the 5.787 it takes to crack the field.

Left Lane: Ross Stickler Runs 9.693/75.38, Now #19; Best prior run: 5.839/245.49, Was #19
Right Lane: Vern Moats Runs 5.875/250.74, Now #7; Best prior run: 5.716/250.00, Was #7

Stickler rattled the tires so hard that the chute fell out of the pack at about 330 feet. Not going to make the show dragging that thing! Moats is doing some head scratching as he rattled the tires pretty good, even though he runs 5.875.

Left Lane: Jay Payne Runs 5.660/257.87, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.673/257.92, Was #4

Payne is the final car of the session and moves him around August on the basis of mph. Payne has top speed of the meet for the class and ties August for #2 in the ET department.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink




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