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JOLIET, Ill. - Notes from round 2 qualifying in Funny Car at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, 13th annual United Association Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by Miller Welders 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: Justin Schriefer Runs 6.582/166.07, Now #13; No Prior Run 1:52 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 78 degrees, relative humidity 63 percent, barometer 29.02 inches, adjusted altitude 3,134 feet, track temperature 102 degrees. Schriefer's car sounded almost like he had a throttle stop on it, the RPMs
never coming up much on the launch and he labored down the track. Left Lane: Paul Lee Runs 4.270/287.84, Now #4; No Prior Run Right Lane: Dale Creasy Jr. Runs 4.288/283.61, Now #5; No Prior Run Nice, easy runs for both drivers and a career-best ET 1,000 feet for "Peanut." Left Lane: John Force Runs 4.397/259.86, Now #6; Best prior run: 5.182/151.68, Was #14 Right Lane: Jack Wyatt Runs 4.488/226.01, Now #8; No Prior Run Last night, Force's car backfired and the burst panel did not open. That built up pressure that cracked the body from side to side, all the way to the fender wells, so today he is running one of Robert Hight's spare bodies, the black one. Both cars
were mixing the cylinders up on the top end and neither posted spectacular numbers. Then the safety crew started cleaning up "stuff"
in Wyatt's lane, near the finish line. Left Lane: Bob Bode Runs 4.512/226.39, Now #9; Best prior run: 4.938/248.48, Was #15 Right Lane: Cruz Pedregon Runs 5.593/135.73, Now #16; No Prior Run Last night's Funny Car session was so bad that Bode's 4.938 was in the top twelve times. Bode's 8-year-old son Bobby won his first Jr. Dragster race and the reaction time award here at Rte. 66 Raceway last weekend, by the way. This one was a bit
better, but he used up a lot of the lane. Pedregon was smoking the tires and pedaling - but squeaked in on the bump spot. Left Lane: Tim Wilkerson Runs 4.619/206.70, Now #13; Best prior run: 4.813/172.87, Was #15 Right Lane: Ashley Force Hood Runs 4.092/306.46, Now #2; No Prior Run Force Hood made the second-best run of the weekend so far, right down the groove. Wilkerson improved from last night's bad run, but this one was no thing of beauty, with lots of pedaling and steering. Left Lane: Jeff Arend Runs 5.469/131.23, Now #15; Best prior run: 4.681/244.47, Was #14 Right Lane: Del Worsham Runs 4.569/282.07, Now #13; No Prior Run Force Hood's run bumped Cruz pedregon, putting Tony Pedregon on the bump spot at 4.774. Arend rattled the tries and
slowed. Worsham made a full pass, bumping Tony Pedregon from the field, but he had a dead cylinder or two. Left Lane: Daniel Wilkerson Runs 4.243/283.91, Now #5; Best prior run: 4.564/203.89, Was #12 Right Lane: Tony Pedregon Runs 4.584/196.76, Now #14; Best prior run: 4.774/254.90, Was #17 Pedregon "lit it up" around the 660-foot marker, fighting to get the car stopped and the body up so the Safety Safari could put the fire out. Meanwhile, young Wilkerson made a good run to move into the top half of the field. Pedregon's run bumped
Jeff Diehl from the field, but Diehl is up next. Jeff Arend is on the bump spot at 4.681. Left Lane: Bob Tasca III Runs 4.885/164.57, Now #12; Best prior run: 4.552/194.94, Was #12 Right Lane: Jeff Diehl No Time, Now #17; Best prior run: 4.711/253.23, Was #17 Diehl's car "sprung a leak" when the crew tried to start it, the oil filter coming off, so they pushed the car to the return road and went to work with rags and mops to clean up the puddle. Tasca's run started off well, then he lost traction and
shut it off around the 660-foot mark. Left Lane: Ron Capps Runs 5.241/140.05, Now #9; Best prior run: 4.456/294.37, Was #9 Right Lane: Matt Hagan Runs 4.740/171.40, Now #3; Best prior run: 4.142/304.53, Was #3 Hagan also has a spare body on his car for this round, the first body cracking when the car hit some bumps in the shutdown area last night. Hagan made a nice run last night, the best of the session until Hight delivered his stunning blow, while Capps did a very nice job of pedaling to get through some early tire shake. Both cars went out about 500 feet, then struck the
tires and slowed. Left Lane: Jack Beckman Runs 4.159/287.78, Now #4; Best prior run: 4.151/297.29, Was #4 Right Lane: Robert Hight Runs 7.350/86.11, Now #1; Best prior run: 4.067/313.15, Was #1 Last pair. These two made the best and the third-best runs last night. As they sat waiting to fire, the crew, along with one or two crewmembers from Hagan's crew, suddenly clustered under the body of Beckman's car for some kind of thrash. Hight's crew patiently waited for them to take care of the problem and for Beckman's crew to fire the engine before cranking Hight's engine over. When the light went green, Beckman went right down the groove, running within thousandths of his run last night, while Hight lost
traction early in the run.
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