Sun, 26 Jun 2005, 03:17 PM Top Fuel Round 1 Eliminations

By Larry Sullivan

EDMONTON, Alb. - Results of round 1 eliminations in Top Fuel at the 2005 Hooters IHRA Drag Racing Series, Third Annual Western RV Rocky Mountain Nationals presented by TORCO Race Fuels:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  345 Bruce Litton                          300 Jack Ostrander               
E1   ****WINNER****  0.108  4.823 292.84                     0.200  7.051 105.65
 Qualified:             #4  4.879 290.19                        #5  5.016 292.77

12:57 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 63 degrees, relative humidity 75 percent, barometer 27.68 inches, adjusted altitude 3,225 feet, track temperature 67 degrees.

This could be "one of those rounds," the early rounds of racing today producing lots of upsets as the cool track proved tricky to negotiate.

Ostrander was late and then his car started spinning the tires and dropped several cylinders, ending with a POP that sounded like a supercharger letting go. Meanwhile, Litton made his best pass of the weekend, with no signs of a problem.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  301 Louie Allison                           1 Clay Millican                
E1                   0.072  8.120  98.84     ****WINNER****  0.082  4.540 325.69
 Qualified:             #3  4.828 282.19                        #6  5.086 203.40

Millican had a wild ride on his qualifying run, the car on a "4.50-4.54 pace" with the front wheels in the air way down the track. He finally had to pedal it to get them down, but they went right back up when he got back on the throttle. This time around, the front end stayed down and he demolished both ends of the track record on a flawless run. Allison had problems before half track and shut it off.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    9 Rick Cooper                             7 Todd Paton                   
E1   ****WINNER****  0.068  5.127 263.10                     0.066  7.184 114.43
 Qualified:             #7  5.237 230.96                        #2  4.703 314.39

After a dead-even start, Paton was pulling away from Cooper early in the run, but he started spinning the tires, dropping cylinders, and then the engine went dead, raw fuel spewing from the pipes. Rick Cooper's incremental margins (negative if behind): 60ft(-0.017), 330 ft(-0.148), 660ft(0.207), 1,000ft(1.029). MOV: 2.0556 seconds (more than 100 feet). Cooper will not have lane choice when he faces Millican in the semifinals, but the Werner team will be changing engines, the one Millican ran in this round "all used up and in pieces."

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
 6073 Ed Verenka                              3 Doug Foley                   
E1                   0.138  5.358 255.29     ****WINNER****  0.188  4.768 274.83
 Qualified:             #8 15.853  74.58                        #1  4.702 286.44

For the first time, an A-Fuel car squares off against a blown fueler. No contest, Foley on another nice run, clean and straight, though it did appear he was starting into tire shake early in the run. Foley faces Litton in the semifinals and will pick the lanes.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink



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