Sat, 12 Oct 2002, 06:25 PM Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Final Session

By Dave Rowe

ENNIS, Texas - Notes from final, round 4 qualifying in Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 17th annual O'Reilly Fall Nationals presented by Castrol Syntec 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: Bob Bode Runs 4.932/305.18, Now #12; Best prior run: 7.527/110.83, Was #17
Right Lane: Peter Russo No Time, Now #18; Best prior run: 8.879/96.32, Was #18

4:45 PM The temperature is 80 degrees, the humidity is 58 percent, the barometer is at 30.07 and the track temp is 108 degrees.

Russo completes his burnout, starts to stage and is told to shut down, an apparent leak.

Tom Hoover is here and is working with Bode. Bode finally makes a full pass and gets in the show in the 12th spot.

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Left Lane: Dean Skuza Runs 4.954/293.44, Now #13; Best prior run: 5.408/202.52, Was #17
Right Lane: Cruz Pedregon Runs 5.222/261.62, Now #17; Best prior run: 5.326/198.54, Was #16

Pedregon was on a decent pass but hazes the tires about 700 feet out and starts mixing up cylinders. Skuza makes a good pass, gets in the 13th spot and bumps out Pedregon.

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Left Lane: Dale Creasy Jr. Runs 5.007/293.06, Now #15; Best prior run: 4.997/287.08, Was #15
Right Lane: Tommy Johnson Jr. Runs 4.870/313.91, Now #7; Best prior run: 4.957/264.70, Was #14

Johnson goes right down the groove and moves into the top half of the field. Creasy made a clean pass but doesn't improve.

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Left Lane: Ron Capps Runs 4.867/313.69, Now #7; Best prior run: 4.911/305.81, Was #12
Right Lane: Johnny Gray Runs 10.257/88.80, Now #12; Best prior run: 4.910/312.06, Was #11

Gray gets about 150 feet out, strikes the tires and has to abort the run. Capps goes right down the groove and makes his quickest pass of the weekend.

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Left Lane: Gary Densham Runs 4.854/320.97, Now #6; Best prior run: 4.903/317.12, Was #11
Right Lane: Scotty Cannon Runs 10.137/84.43, Now #10; Best prior run: 4.872/315.01, Was #9

Densham makes a great pass for the conditions, the quickest of the session so far, and gets in the top half of the field in the sixth spot. Cannon gets about 300 feet, strikes the tires and shuts down.

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Left Lane: Bob Gilbertson Runs 4.944/305.70, Now #11; Best prior run: 4.891/312.50, Was #11
Right Lane: Frank Pedregon Runs 4.967/299.60, Now #5; Best prior run: 4.853/309.70, Was #5

A couple of decent, non-eventful runs, both right down the groove and neither driver improves.

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Left Lane: John Force Runs 4.862/321.88, Now #7; Best prior run: 4.854/315.34, Was #7
Right Lane: Del Worsham Runs 4.951/315.23, Now #4; Best prior run: 4.823/319.82, Was #4

A couple of good-looking runs, both right down the middle, but neither driver improves.

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Left Lane: Whit Bazemore Runs 4.912/314.90, Now #3; Best prior run: 4.817/322.92, Was #3

Bazemore makes a good pass right down the groove. I'm not sure if the times are right, it took about 15 seconds for the times to come up on the board and all the incrementals were the same. It doesn't make any difference in the order, he will remain in the third spot.

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Left Lane: Bruce Sarver Runs 4.857/313.26, Now #2; Best prior run: 4.798/320.39, Was #2
Right Lane: Tony Pedregon Runs 4.853/319.48, Now #1; Best prior run: 4.789/323.50, Was #1

These two guys have been running like bracket racers since the first round and they continue that here. A good side-by-side, they run the first and third quickest runs this round.

That ends qualifying for Funny Car and the matchups tomorrow will be: Tony Pedregon vs. Paton, Sarver vs. Creasy, Bazemore vs. Skuza, Worsham vs. Bode, Frank Pedregon vs. Gray, Densham vs. Gilbertson, Force vs. Cannon and Capps vs. Johnson.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink

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