Fri, 3 Sep 2010, 04:34 PM Top Alcohol Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #2

By Dan Bennett

CLERMONT, Ind. - Notes from round 2 qualifying in Top Alcohol Funny Car at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, 56th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil 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:

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Left Lane: Vern Moats Runs 5.668/255.77, Now #3; No Prior Run
Right Lane: Thomas Carter Runs 6.309/185.33, Now #8; No Prior Run

4:08 p.m. These racers have had a few hours to look over their earlier data and decide what needs to be done to run an Alcohol Funny Car down this track. Last session, probably more missed than got it right.

Carter's going to lose another run as one of the chutes deployed right at the hit. Moats is dancing around quite a bit in the left lane but cards a very nice pass to get him into the show.

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Left Lane: Mickey Ferro Runs 5.632/253.99, Now #2; No Prior Run

Ferro's on a single so we can hear pretty clearly what his engine is doing. He leaves hard and the rpms build nicely. There may have been a slight flat spot right around the shift but it's still a very good run, good enough to be second best.

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Left Lane: Steve Harker Runs 15.666/56.41, Now #17; Best prior run: 14.642/56.17, Was #17
Right Lane: Brent Henry Runs 5.674/253.66, Now #5; Best prior run: 10.454/68.75, Was #16

So far this session, the crew chiefs seem as if they've corrected identified what needed to be done. Neither of these cars made it down the track last time up, so they have a big window for improvement.

Hawker misses completely as the car immediately hammers the tires and the car turns on a 45 degree angle toward the wall. He does a great job of driving and barely escapes scraping the paint. That's very unusual to see this team lose two runs in a row.

I'd remarked on the unusual weather here. The low humidity is helping things out but we almost never get such a low barometer here.

Weather conditions: air temperature 80 degrees, relative humidity 32 percent, barometer 28.94 inches, adjusted altitude 2,982 feet, track temperature 107 degrees.

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Left Lane: Don Devault Runs 6.917/183.15, Now #15; Best prior run: 7.860/121.20, Was #16
Right Lane: Chris Foster Runs 5.709/249.39, Now #6; Best prior run: 7.401/124.13, Was #15

Devault is really agressive as he is feathering the throttle most of the way down but never gets the car to really settle down. In the other lane, Foster has no visible problems and gets into the top half.

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Left Lane: Cassie Simonton Runs 6.725/149.08, Now #15; Best prior run: 7.240/132.17, Was #16
Right Lane: Fred Hagen Jr. Runs 5.626/252.95, Now #2; Best prior run: 6.496/148.33, Was #13

Both cars looked pretty good on the front half but Simonton started falling back just past the 660. Hagen's run is straight as a string and he jumps into the #2.

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Left Lane: Wayne Butler Runs 7.813/116.71, Now #14; Best prior run: 6.590/238.09, Was #14
Right Lane: John Hart Runs 6.037/233.88, Now #9; Best prior run: 6.426/216.20, Was #13

Butler was really, really loose and got very close to the wall. Hart finds a few tenths.

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Left Lane: John Bojec No Time, Now #8; Best prior run: 5.743/250.32, Was #8
Right Lane: Jay Payne Runs 5.766/250.18, Now #9; Best prior run: 6.244/153.42, Was #12

Payne hits a long, smoky burnout. Bojec's team watches, and then pulls the car off to the short chute without ever attempting to fire it.

Payne's wheelspeed gets a little crazy right at the shift but he manhandles the car back to the center of the lane.

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Left Lane: Alexis De Joria Runs 6.645/152.95, Now #4; Best prior run: 5.633/257.92, Was #4
Right Lane: John Lombardo Jr. Runs 5.766/254.14, Now #9; Best prior run: 6.093/252.71, Was #12

DeJoria's car is fairly twitchy and she falls back not too far past half track. Lombardo gets the NAPA car almost into the top half.

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Left Lane: Tony Bartone Runs 5.789/247.34, Now #1; Best prior run: 5.532/258.47, Was #1
Right Lane: Rick Cortino Runs 5.990/237.34, Now #11; Best prior run: 6.042/217.56, Was #12

This pair ends the session and Bartone's still in the top spot.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink



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