Fri, 11 Nov 2011, 19:12 PM Top Alcohol Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Final Session

By Larry Sullivan

POMONA, Calif. - Notes from final, round 3 qualifying in Top Alcohol 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:

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Left Lane: Sean O'Bannon Runs 5.589/255.92, Now #4; Best prior run: 5.898/241.80, Was #14
Right Lane: Keeter Ray Runs 5.635/255.48, Now #7; Best prior run: 7.865/124.57, Was #18

3:36 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 70 degrees, relative humidity 28 percent, barometer 28.75 inches, adjusted altitude 2,457 feet, track temperature 78 degrees.

Jordan Pawlick is on the bump spot at 6.035.

Ray went from last on the list to the middle of the field on this run, right down the groove. O'Bannon also carded his best run of the event, by three tenths, to move into the middle of the top half.

They did a quick drag-and-mop in Ray's lane, appeared to be alcohol.

Now Sean Bellemeur is on the bump spot at 5.960.

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Left Lane: Kris Hool Runs 7.075/142.04, Now #13; Best prior run: 5.783/255.24, Was #13
Right Lane: Steve Gasparrelli Runs 5.799/255.19, Now #14; Best prior run: 6.480/253.66, Was #18

Hool's car went left, he pedaled, the car went left again and he appeared to graze the wall. The run was too slow to count anyway. Meanwhile, Gasparrelli made a "Hail Mary" run and got into the field. Now Jeff Ashwell is on the bump spot at 5.868.

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Left Lane: Bernie Harrington Runs 5.813/212.69, Now #12; Best prior run: 5.762/249.53, Was #12
Right Lane: Jordan Pawlick No Time, Now #18; Best prior run: 6.035/245.40, Was #18

Pawlick was bumped from the field just moments ago. Although the first-alternate will probably run in eliminations tomorrow (Brian Smith probably won't be able to run tomorrow), nobody wants to get in that way.

Well, the run (6.170 seconds) wasn't quick enough to get him anyway, but Pawlick's car went directly from the starting line to the 660-foot timing block and took it out, so it didn't count anyway. Harrington made a clean run, failed to improve.

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Right Lane: Sean Bellemeur Runs 5.688/254.86, Now #9; Best prior run: 5.960/255.24, Was #17

Bellemeur made a nice run to bump into the middle of the field.

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Left Lane: Doug Gordon Runs 5.590/259.41, Now #6; Best prior run: 5.699/260.71, Was #10
Right Lane: Jeff Ashwell Runs 6.181/230.25, Now #17; Best prior run: 5.868/245.76, Was #17

Bellemeur's good fortune was ASshwell's bad fortune, and he failed to improve on a snaking run here, so he will go into eliminations as the first alternate. Gordon, on the other hand, improved a tenth to move into the top half of the field.

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Left Lane: Shane Westerfield Runs 14.388/40.95, Now #9; Best prior run: 5.636/257.28, Was #9
Right Lane: Clint Thompson Runs 5.663/252.43, Now #10; Best prior run: 5.857/241.58, Was #16

Westerfield popped the burst panel 200 feet out, deploying the chutes. Thompson's car was darting left and right, but he stayed with it to move up several spots.

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Left Lane: John Lombardo Jr. Runs 5.636/258.81, Now #7; Best prior run: 5.628/258.76, Was #7
Right Lane: Fred Tigges Runs 15.779/120.74, Now #13; Best prior run: 5.754/254.47, Was #13

Tigges spun the tires hard, the RPMs going "to the Moon." Lombardo made a nice run, just a few thousandths slower than his first and a couple hundredths better than his worst.

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Left Lane: Roger Bateman Runs 5.586/256.99, Now #3; Best prior run: 5.563/258.57, Was #3
Right Lane: Jay Payne Runs 5.607/260.06, Now #5; Best prior run: 5.590/261.22, Was #5

Two nice runs, no visible problems in either lane.

Roger Bateman's incremental times: 60ft-0.947 sec., 330ft-2.480, 660ft-3.680/206.13 mph, 1,000ft-4.710.
Jay Payne's incremental times: 60ft-0.970 sec., 330ft-2.511, 660ft-3.716/206.45 mph, 1,000ft-4.741.

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Left Lane: Paul Gill Runs 5.504/262.59, Now #1; Best prior run: 5.561/261.93, Was #2
Right Lane: Tony Bartone Runs 11.895/57.69, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.546/262.28, Was #1

Both drivers were loaded for bear. Bartone's car may have gotten fluid under a tire because it made several quick moves before he could shut it off. Meanwhile, Gill improved by several hundredths to take over the top spot.

Paul Gill's incremental times: 60ft-0.947 sec., 330ft-2.452, 660ft-3.637/208.30 mph, 1,000ft-4.647.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink



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