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POMONA, Calif. - Notes from round 3 qualifying in Top Fuel at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, 45th 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: Shawn Langdon Runs 5.231/163.12, Now #13; No Prior Run Right Lane: Lex Joon Runs 6.587/90.67, Now #14; No Prior Run 1:24 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 68 degrees, relative humidity 44 percent, barometer 28.87 inches, adjusted altitude 2,312 feet, track temperature 91 degrees. Looks like
Joon's "white wall" bump off the guard rail yesterday wasn't too damaging, as he is rolling up to
the line to qualify. Left Lane: Stig Neergaard Runs 4.087/284.09, Now #13; No Prior Run Right Lane: Thomas Nataas Runs 10.381/70.79, Now #16; No Prior Run Two "Division 8" dragsters come to the line. No joy for Nataas, as the tires are up in smoke before the 330 lights. Neergaard keeps the tires in speed with the track and gets to the finish line under power. Left Lane: Steve Torrence Runs 4.694/166.70, Now #9; Best prior run: 3.891/306.53, Was #9 Right Lane: Del Cox Jr Runs 3.984/300.60, Now #13; No Prior Run Thomas Nataas is on the bump spot at 10.381. Cox is this year's IHRA TF Champion and is at the bottom of the ladder. The team finds the tune up this time and he runs straight down the track into the current #13 spot. No joy for Torrance, as his car has too much shake to get into the field. Del Cox Jr's incremental times: 60ft-0.890 sec., 330ft-2.239, 660ft-3.181/267.11 mph. Left Lane: Tim Cullinan Runs 4.040/290.76, Now #14; No Prior Run Right Lane: Doug Kalitta Runs 3.875/315.27, Now #5; Best prior run: 3.836/316.82, Was #5 Lex Joon is on the bump spot at 6.587. Kalitta has the beans and the tune up and runs down the tricky right lane and into the #5 spot on a clean and smooth pass. Cullinan's fueler is lazy off the line and looked to have clicked it early, but still gets into the field in the current #14 spot. Tim Cullinan's incremental times: 60ft-0.913 sec., 330ft-2.270, 660ft-3.222/264.49 mph. Doug Kalitta's incremental times: 60ft-0.856 sec., 330ft-2.181, 660ft-3.104/273.94 mph. Left Lane: Ron August Runs 4.980/148.15, Now #17; No Prior Run Right Lane: Steven Chrisman Runs 4.753/171.49, Now #16; No Prior Run Shawn Langdon is on the bump spot at 5.231. Two good startsl and then two broken runs. Chrisman gets the best of it to take over the current bump spot. Left Lane: Troy Buff Runs 5.892/109.03, Now #19; No Prior Run Right Lane: Bob Vandergriff Runs 7.391/80.52, Now #8; Best prior run: 3.881/308.99, Was #8 Vandergriff is already in the current top half of the field, but Buff has struggled on every run this weekend. It's all over for both drives before 200 feet, as shake and spin strike both cars. They lift together and won't improve. Left Lane: Mike Strasburg No Time, Now #22; No Prior Run Right Lane: Tony Schumacher Runs 3.822/318.24, Now #3; Best prior run: 3.832/316.52, Was #3 You don't usually see Schumacher this early in the session, but he shows why the Army team can never be questioned. Terrific pass in the difficult right lane to improve on his prior best. If we look at the points right now, he moves back in front of Dixon for a while. Strasburg's car dies right off the line. Tony Schumacher's incremental times: 60ft-0.846 sec., 330ft-2.152, 660ft-3.061/278.86 mph. Left Lane: David Grubnic Runs 5.959/104.09, Now #12; No Prior Run Right Lane: Cory McClenathan Runs 3.859/315.49, Now #6; No Prior Run Steven Chrisman is on the bump spot at 4.753. Both cars were already in the field coming into this round. Another big Team Schumacher tune up in the right lane and the Fram dragster is well into the top half of the field for now. Grubnic joins the broken run club in the left lane with tire smoke right off the line. Cory McClenathan's incremental times: 60ft-0.850 sec., 330ft-2.172, 660ft-3.092/276.07 mph. Right Lane: Scott Palmer Runs 3.954/290.38, Now #13; No Prior Run Palmer makes a nice clean single pass in the resurgent right lane and runs well into the new #13 spot. A career best ET for his efforts. Scott Palmer's incremental times: 60ft-0.859 sec., 330ft-2.177, 660ft-3.131/260.66 mph. Left Lane: Antron Brown Runs 4.824/149.18, Now #7; Best prior run: 3.853/313.88, Was #7 Right Lane: Urs Erbacher Runs 5.692/106.71, Now #20; No Prior Run Stig Neergaard is on the bump spot at 4.087. We'll see how good the left lane really is, as Brown comes to the line. Not too good apparently, as both cars are up in smoke by the 330 lights. Erbacher may have banged the burst panel, as the both chutes are out immediately. The car stops on the track half way to the turnout and the top end crew has to come out and drag it away. One last try later today. Left Lane: Spencer Massey Runs 3.855/312.93, Now #2; Best prior run: 3.809/317.94, Was #2 Right Lane: Morgan Lucas Runs 3.930/286.74, Now #11; Best prior run: 3.909/303.84, Was #11 Finally we get a nice side by side pair of passes and it's a good one, with both cars getting to the finish line under power. Neither car improves, but good numbers for the conditions. Cool! Spencer Massey's incremental times: 60ft-0.843 sec., 330ft-2.162, 660ft-3.080/274.61 mph. Morgan Lucas' incremental times: 60ft-0.853 sec., 330ft-2.170, 660ft-3.099/265.06 mph. Left Lane: Larry Dixon Runs 3.802/321.58, Now #1; Best prior run: 3.801/318.99, Was #1 Right Lane: Brandon Bernstein Runs 7.237/87.99, Now #4; Best prior run: 3.832/312.28, Was #4 Last pair of the session. Dixon takes no prisoners and runs the fastest speed in one thousand foot history and a new national record. Three more Bonus points to boot! Bernstein has good numbers to the sixty foot mark and smokes the tires right after that. Larry Dixon's incremental times: 60ft-0.838 sec., 330ft-2.142, 660ft-3.049/280.89 mph. 2:05 p.m. Stig Neergaard is on the bump spot at 4.087.
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