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Sat, 01 Oct 2016, 12:39 PM

Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #1

By Jim Samuel

MOHNTON, Pa. - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Funny Car at the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, 32nd annual Dodge NHRA Nationals listing lane, driver name, elapsed time, top speed, and position in order following run:

Left Lane: Mike Smith Runs 7.562/83.83, Now #1
Right Lane: John Bojec Runs 8.428/69.96, Now #2

12:14 p.m. - Weather conditions: air temperature 62 degrees, relative humidity 82 percent, barometer 29.61 inches, adjusted altitude 1,232 feet, track temperature 69 degrees.
This could be the only qualifying session of the event for Funny Car. There are 16 cars here so these runs will be for position only.

Smith launched and immediately shook the rear tires very hard. He shut the car down right away and coasted to the finish line. Bojec's car launched just fine but started shaking about 100 feet out, with some parts flying out from under the car.

Left Lane: Jim Campbell Runs 15.003/53.76, Now #4
Right Lane: John Hale Runs 8.614/75.88, Now #3

Campbell took a lot of time getting his car staged, while Hale sat and waited. When they launched, Campbell shook the tires right out of the gate and clicked it off. Hale got a few feet out before he shut his car off too.

Left Lane: Cruz Pedregon Runs 12.526/75.47, Now #5
Right Lane: Chad Head Runs 6.628/96.51, Now #1

Pedregon's car went out three or four feet before he shut his car down. Head came off the line and was strong to about 300 feet before he smoked the rear tires and shut off. Head had the fastest speed of the session so far at 95 MPH.

Left Lane: Alexis DeJoria Runs 12.151/81.44, Now #6
Right Lane: Tim Wilkerson Runs 11.102/141.11, Now #5

The light turned green. Both drivers hit the throttle. Both cars shook the tires hard. Both drivers got off the throttle before either car had moved more than a couple of feet. They coasted for a bit, then Wilkerson got back on the throttle to record the fastest speed of the session so far at 141 MPH.

Left Lane: Courtney Force Runs 8.041/81.55, Now #4
Right Lane: Robert Hight Runs 4.690/243.24, Now #1

Both cars got out to about 300 feet when both shook the rear tires. Force got off the throttle and coasted. Hight got back on the throttle to take the top spot in the order for now. He was the first driver to run faster than 150 MPH in this session.

Left Lane: Matt Hagan Runs 3.873/333.99, Now #1
Right Lane: Del Worsham Runs 3.904/325.77, Now #2

WOW! Two drivers made it the entire 1,000-foot length of the race track to take over the top two spots in the order. Hagan set track records for ET and speed with this run. Both drivers had strong launches and both went straight down the groove.

Left Lane: John Force Runs 12.185/78.24, Now #12
Right Lane: Jack Beckman Runs 9.998/63.76, Now #9

Things quickly got back to normal after a pair of strong runs by Hagan and Worsham. Force shook the tires immediately, Beckman got out about 100 feet before he shook the rear tires on his car.

Left Lane: Tommy Johnson Jr. Runs 3.897/330.80, Now #2
Right Lane: Ron Capps Runs 4.192/325.06, Now #4

Capps had some tire shake coming out of the gate. He pedaled the car and finished the run strong enough to move into the number four spot. Johnson had a strong run from start to finish and moved into the second spot. That's it for the first qualifying session. Plans are to get a second session in today but we'll have to wait and see if the weather allows that to happen.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink