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POMONA, Calif. - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Top Alcohol Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 44th annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals listing lane, driver name, elapsed time, top speed, and position in order following run: Left Lane: Daniel Oliver No Time, Now #2 Right Lane: Bernie Harrington No Time, Now #1 12:00 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 76 degrees, relative humidity 35 percent, barometer 28.86 inches, adjusted altitude 2,809 feet, track temperature 99 degrees.
Goodwin is just born under a bad sign. He's repaired the car twice this season and there might be some body damage as Oliver takes
out a couple of cones at mid-track. He was off the pedal and the car just appeared to have a magnet for those cones. This is the
second race outing for his new driver and I'm sure young mister Oliver has just had a learning experience. No one ever said these
things were easy to drive! Harrington left before the tree so he gets no time as well, with less drama! Left Lane: Brian Smith Runs 6.167/239.02, Now #1 Right Lane: Bret Williamson Runs 10.099/80.54, Now #2 Smith flirts with the stripe at half track and then adds insult by going into the sand pit at the top end. Williamson shook hard at the hit and was off the pedal before 330ft. Left Lane: John Patton Runs 15.039/56.86, Now #4 Right Lane: Russ Parker Runs 8.706/102.07, Now #2 Parker is in the Bellemeur family car and has his hands full of a loose alky Funny Car. The car shook hard in the right lane he fell silent early in his run. Patton simply blew the tires off at the hit and was coasting after about 30ft. These drivers are really busy in the coupes. Left Lane: Sean Bellemeur Runs 5.850/250.00, Now #2 Right Lane: Hank Coolidge Runs 5.773/247.11, Now #1 We get a pair that at least makes a full pass...well, almost full. Coolidge was all over the right lane and had to list at least once to get back into the middle of the lane. Bellemeur drives through the shake and out the back light, sliding into the #2 spot behind Coolidge. Right Lane: Ron August Jr No Time, Now #9 August fired for a split second and after the engine died the crew quietly pushed him and the car away. No idea what happened there. Left Lane: DJ Cox Jr. Runs 5.802/248.43, Now #3 Right Lane: Alexis De Joria Runs 5.722/251.72, Now #1 Now you might just classify this as a bit of a surprise. DeJoria puts together the best looking run I've ever seen her make and goes around the field to take over the top qualifying spot for the moment. I can't believe it will hold but that looked really good! Cox wasn't far behind and goes to #3. Left Lane: Steve Burck Runs 5.745/252.19, Now #2 Right Lane: Dennis Taylor Runs 5.922/241.63, Now #6 Burck just misses the top of the show but does go to the second position. Taylor must have decided to make sure the car got to the other end but he was setup VERY soft. Left Lane: Steve Gasparrelli Runs 5.671/254.23, Now #1 Right Lane: Vern Moats Runs 5.807/249.39, Now #6 And now we have a new leader in the clubhouse. Gasparrelli makes it look easy and sets both top speed and low ET for the class. Moats will be doing some tuning, but at least he has something to work with. Left Lane: Marty Nothstein Runs 5.822/253.66, Now #7 Right Lane: Clint Thompson Runs 13.451/61.73, Now #13 Thompson blew the tires off at the beginning of the run and couldn't recover. Nothstein gets his ride into the top half at the moment. There are supposedly 30 Alky Funnies entered at this event. Left Lane: Keeter Ray Runs 12.916/61.88, Now #14 Right Lane: Doug Gordon Runs 5.686/257.43, Now #2 Flash Gordon just misses Gasparrelli's qualifying effort and will have to settle for #2. Good looking pass though. Keeter Ray did the bunny hop at the hit and he never recovered. Left Lane: Mick Snyder Runs 5.754/248.71, Now #6 Right Lane: Sean O'Bannon Runs 5.752/255.00, Now #5 O'Bannon had an uneventful run until after the finish. I couldn't tell if the car scraped the wall or he just got VERY close because there was a huge cloud of dust raised after the stripe. Snyder was real close and loses the #5 spot to O'Bannon by .002. Left Lane: Bobby Martin Runs 5.687/247.79, Now #3 Right Lane: Mickey Ferro Runs 5.800/251.20, Now #9 Another racer in the 5.6s and Martin will hold down the third spot for the moment. Ferro had a run that looked better than it was. My angle here is really not great and from straight behind the cars that was straight as a string. Left Lane: Brian Hough Runs 5.685/253.61, Now #2 Right Lane: Roger Bateman Runs 8.506/90.28, Now #17 5.68s are cheap at the moment as Hough becomes the third driver in this round to run one. Bateman was just about full sideways before 330ft. He did lift. Left Lane: Jay Payne Runs 5.585/258.17, Now #2 Right Lane: Steve Harker Runs 5.569/249.63, Now #1 Well, so much for my comments about 5.68s! Harker saves the session with a really stout mid five second run. Payne moved around a little bit and still records a 5.5 to close out the first qualifying session for the floppers.
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