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POMONA, Calif. - Notes from round 2 qualifying in Funny Car at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, 47th 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: Cruz Pedregon Runs 4.445/195.31, Now #11; Best prior run: 9.157/73.41, Was #23 Right Lane: Todd Lesenko Runs 5.273/155.02, Now #15; No Prior Run 2:15 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 70 degrees, relative humidity 28 percent, barometer 28.75 inches, adjusted altitude 2,467 feet, track temperature 87 degrees. A thin cloud layer has now moved in, possibly the precursors for overnight showers. Lesenko skipped yesterday's session and Pedregon smoked the tires, so they get to lead off today. John Force is on the bump spot at 4.585. Weather conditions: air temperature 70 degrees, relative humidity 28 percent, barometer 28.75 inches, adjusted altitude 2,467 feet, track temperature 87 degrees. Both drivers were off the throttle well before the stripe, Lesenko with early tire smoke, Pedregon doing the same around
half track. Left Lane: Johnny Gray Runs 6.551/99.85, Now #19; Best prior run: 8.957/75.35, Was #24 Right Lane: Terry Haddock Runs 5.909/117.16, Now #18; Best prior run: 8.886/85.81, Was #23 Oh-for-two, Gray losing traction first, Haddock not long after. Left Lane: Peter Russo No Time, Now #24; Best prior run: 8.632/76.80, Was #24 Right Lane: Jim Head Runs 5.821/122.74, Now #18; Best prior run: 6.701/102.77, Was #21 Russo made the burnout and shut it off. Head got about 200 feet, started smoking the tires, backpedaled and tried again, lifting just in time to stay in his own lane. Left Lane: Alexis DeJoria Runs 4.158/306.88, Now #8; Best prior run: 8.264/77.45, Was #23 Right Lane: Jack Beckman Runs 4.136/310.55, Now #5; Best prior run: 6.613/96.95, Was #21 Two pretty good runs - at least by comparison with the earlier runs. Given tomorrow's "iffy" forecast, those runs were probably about what the two teams were looking for. Left Lane: Jeff Diehl Runs 4.293/288.95, Now #13; Best prior run: 7.547/95.52, Was #23 Right Lane: Cory Lee Runs 10.300/41.83, Now #20; Best prior run: 5.661/126.28, Was #19 Lee's supercharger went BANG in the first 200 feet, sending the pressure relief hatch sailing through the air and deploying the chutes. Diehl made a full pass, missed the cut. Left Lane: Melanie Troxel Runs 4.397/216.93, Now #15; Best prior run: 5.488/222.73, Was #19 Right Lane: Gary Densham Runs 4.163/301.94, Now #9; Best prior run: 4.993/164.81, Was #17 Densham made a nice pass to bump into the field. That puts Bob Bode on the bump spot at 4.257. Troxel had a strong start, started spinning the tires around half track. Left Lane: John Force No Time, Now #18; Best prior run: 4.585/260.06, Was #18 Right Lane: Tony Pedregon Runs 4.368/273.05, Now #15; Best prior run: 4.471/270.81, Was #17 Both cars started out okay, but then both started spinning the tires and mixing up cylinders. Force's car made a hard right turn and crossed the centerline briefly, the supercharger letting go in a big flash of flame as he did so. That sent the pressure relief hatch sailing high in the air, probably minimizing the amount of damage to the carbon-fibre body. Neither car was quick enough to make the field and Force's run was negated by the centerline violation. Left Lane: Paul Lee Runs 4.739/182.28, Now #12; Best prior run: 4.254/300.20, Was #11 Right Lane: Jeff Arend Runs 4.133/307.02, Now #5; Best prior run: 4.261/241.71, Was #13 Arend made a very nice run to bump Bob Bode from the provisional field, putting Arend well up in the field. Lee started hazing the tires on the top end and shut it off. That puts him on the bump spot with his 4.254 from yesterday. Left Lane: Jon Capps Runs 4.182/299.20, Now #11; Best prior run: 4.165/298.01, Was #11 Right Lane: Bob Bode No Time, Now #13; Best prior run: 4.257/295.79, Was #13 Bode was just bumped from the field, Capps should be safely in, even if Bode moves around him here, because the remaining cars are already in the field. Bode was on a good pace, but his car took dead aim at the 660-foot timing reflector and
he clipped it. He also lifted, so the run would not have helped him anyway. Left Lane: Bob Tasca III Runs 7.319/92.21, Now #8; Best prior run: 4.138/306.33, Was #8 Right Lane: Tim Wilkerson Runs 4.122/304.46, Now #3; Best prior run: 4.125/301.87, Was #4 The remaining cars are already qualified, so they are jockeying for position. Tasca hazed the tires and lifted around 300 feet out, but Wilkerson made the best run of the round so far, right down the groove, and moves up one spot. Tim Wilkerson's
incremental times: 60ft-0.911 sec., 330ft-2.349, 660ft-3.324/264.60 mph. Left Lane: Matt Hagan Runs 4.088/310.41, Now #3; Best prior run: 4.137/304.32, Was #7 Right Lane: Ron Capps Runs 7.277/87.48, Now #5; Best prior run: 4.124/301.94, Was #4 Capps lost traction about 300 feet out, but Hagan made the quickest run of the session so far and he took over the third spot. Matt Hagan's incremental times: 60ft-0.909 sec., 330ft-2.333, 660ft-3.302/265.27 mph. Left Lane: Robert Hight Runs 4.102/313.07, Now #1; Best prior run: 4.084/312.13, Was #1 Right Lane: Mike Neff Runs 4.123/308.99, Now #2; Best prior run: 4.087/313.44, Was #2 Last pair. These two grabbed the bonus points for the top two spots yesterday, need to beat Hagan's 4.088 to do the same today. Well, Hight grabbed two bonus points, but Neff missed the one-point award by a thousandth (Wilkerson gets that one) and left Hagan with the three-point bonus. Good runs, clean and straight, but not as quick as expected. Robert Hight's incremental
times: 60ft-0.906 sec., 330ft-2.342, 660ft-3.317/265.06 mph.
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