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COMMERCE, Ga. - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Top Fuel at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, 29th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals listing lane, driver name, elapsed time, top speed, and position in order following run: Right Lane: Luigi Novelli No Time, Now #1 3:36 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 73 degrees, relative humidity 27 percent, barometer 29.50 inches, adjusted altitude 1,758 feet, track temperature 108 degrees. Novelli made the burnout, backed up, then shut it off, so his season debut
will have to wait until this evening. Right Lane: Bob Vandergriff Runs 3.895/302.62, Now #1 Another season debut, Vandergriff's car sporting Speedco (a truck oil change and lube chain) livery this year. As we understand it, the current deal is for this event (in Vandergriff's backyard) and the U.S. Nationals. Nice opening pass, though he
was eating pistons past the eighth-mile marker. Left Lane: Chris Karamesines Runs 4.692/261.98, Now #2 Right Lane: Terry McMillen Runs 10.885/80.68, Now #3 "The Greek" admits to being 77 years old and still has no problem passing his annual driver's physical exam. He's a role model for us young geezers. Both cars started smoking the tires early in the run. McMillen threw in the towel, but Karamesines
slapped the throttle and got the tires hooked back up again. However, he dropped a couple cylinders and the car trailed a
reddish-brown trail of partially-burned fuel the rest of the way down the track. Left Lane: Bobby Lagana Jr. Runs 4.230/214.76, Now #2 Right Lane: Troy Buff Runs 4.499/175.14, Now #3 Both cars went about 800 feet, then started hazing the tires and slowed. Left Lane: Terry Haddock No Time, Now #7 Right Lane: Clay Millican Runs 9.356/73.02, Now #5 Millican has been performing crewmember duties on car owner Mark Pickens' Top Sportsman car this weekend, Pickens competing in the Top Sportsman Invitational. Haddock's car rolled about six inches, just far enough to trip the reaction timer,
then stopped moving. Millican got off the starting line, then lost traction and shut it off. Left Lane: Spencer Massey Runs 3.983/298.54, Now #2 Right Lane: Joe Hartley Runs 8.925/83.46, Now #6 Hartley was up in smoke almost immediately, the front wheels in the air. massey went right down the track - nothing spectacular, the car lazy on the top end. Left Lane: Shawn Langdon Runs 3.912/305.98, Now #2 Right Lane: Doug Kalitta Runs 3.974/306.19, Now #3 Nice side-by-side show for the Friday crowd, both cars going smoothly down the track with no tire smoke or dropped cylinders, but Vandergriff remains at the head of the class. Left Lane: Morgan Lucas Runs 5.588/134.16, Now #9 Right Lane: Cory McClenathan Runs 4.458/176.77, Now #6 Lucas smoked the tires about 200 feet out, Cory Mac did the same closer to half track. Left Lane: Larry Dixon Runs 3.881/310.98, Now #2 Right Lane: Brandon Bernstein Runs 3.866/310.48, Now #1 Another nice side-by-side show and this time they went right to the head of the class. Dixon may have dropped a cylinder on the top end and Bernstein smoked a few pistons when he lifted, but both runs were otherwise flawless. Larry Dixon's
incremental times: 60ft-0.843 sec., 330ft-2.172, 660ft-3.104/273.39 mph. Left Lane: Antron Brown Runs 3.869/310.13, Now #2 Right Lane: Tony Schumacher Runs 3.884/309.98, Now #4 Two more good runs, Schumacher mixing the cylinders up a bit on the top end. Bernstein remains #1 and Chris Karamesines is on the bump spot at 4.692.
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