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Top Alcohol Dragster Qualifying Notes, Final Session
Sat, 2 Aug 2003, 03:03 PM
Notes from final, round 3 qualifying in Top Alcohol Dragster at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing
Series, 16th annual FRAM-Autolite NHRA Nationals 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: Mitch Myers Runs 14.223/89.77, Now #6; Best prior run: 5.444/255.15, Was
#6
Right Lane: Don Hudson Runs 5.752/240.89, Now #4; Best prior run: 5.431/257.43, Was
#4
11:05 AM Alcohol cars take center stage for their final qualifying session. Morgan
Lucas is #1 going into this session and Tony Meredyk is on the bump. Myers blows the tires off
at the hit and Hudson pedals at least once on his pass. He still runs a seventy five.
Left Lane: Darryl Hitchman Runs 5.372/256.94, Now #3; Best prior run: 5.393/255.53,
Was #3
Right Lane: Chris Demke Runs 5.408/259.81, Now #4; Best prior run: 5.506/254.33, Was
#10
Hitchman improves slightly on his ET but remains #3. Demke picks up a tenth and
slides into the show right behind Hitchman.
Left Lane: Steve Federlin Runs 5.392/260.91, Now #4; Best prior run: 5.470/259.41,
Was #10
Right Lane: Larry Miersch Runs 5.454/255.19, Now #10; Best prior run: 5.560/245.99,
Was #12
Federlin brought the rpm up just a bit higher this time and moves the blown car into
the 5.3s. Miersch also picks up a bit and moves up two spots.
Left Lane: Garrett Bateman Runs 5.360/266.64, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.524/248.89,
Was #12
Right Lane: Chris Lane Runs 5.522/245.49, Now #13; Best prior run: 5.560/226.70, Was
#13
Bateman moves into the #2 spot with the best run of the session for the long cars.
Lane improved slightly but remains #13. Pretty good session so far even if the bump hasn't
changed.
Left Lane: Duane Shields Runs 5.432/260.91, Now #8; Best prior run: 5.464/258.12,
Was #12
Right Lane: Alan Bradshaw Runs 5.236/263.67, Now #1; Best prior run: 5.370/237.46,
Was #3
Bradshaw moves around Lucas and takes over the catbird seat. Shields had some pretty heavy shake
and appeared to short shift the car. Bradshaw breaks the track record for ET on his shot. He
moved it down from a 5.29 by Morgan Lucas.
Left Lane: Randy Eakins No Time, Now #15; Best prior run: 5.643/239.02, Was #15
Right Lane: Mark Niver No Time, Now #11; Best prior run: 5.449/254.28, Was #11
11:25 AM Niver has a pretty nasty looking accident here. He appears to be out of the
car and ok but it looked pretty ugly. Niver's car struck the tires almost at the hit and it
appeared the throttle stuck wide open. The back of the car swung around shooting him across the
lane backwards and the back of the car contacted the wall pretty hard. The car rolled over and
the engine continued to run full out until it blew up. Eakins did a really nice job of driving,
getting his car stopped before hitting Niver. It looked really scary but Niver is ok and the
looks repairable.
Left Lane: Gary Anderson Runs 6.808/143.75, Now #14; Best prior run: 5.640/253.14,
Was #14
Right Lane: Jack Beckman Runs 6.760/195.59, Now #17; Best prior run: 6.966/181.06,
Was #17
11:47 AM We're back underway after the Niver incident. Beckman improves but still
has holes out in the A/Fuel motor. Anderson also appeared to have holes out and he falls way off
from his best.
Left Lane: Morgan Lucas Runs 5.364/268.92, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.345/269.24,
Was #2
Right Lane: Tony Meredyk Runs 14.796/95.58, Now #16; Best prior run: 6.104/212.33,
Was #16
Lucas has been bumped down to the second spot in the field by Bradshaw in this
session. Meredyk has a flash out of the back of the motor and just motors on down the lane.
Lucas slows slightly and can't take back the #1 spot.
Left Lane: Darren Nicholson Runs 9.511/80.82, Now #9; Best prior run: 5.437/241.24,
Was #9
Nicholson closes out the session by shaking the tires hard and then having the
blower belt fall off. That's all for alcohol as it appears the Top Fuel cars are in the wings.
11:55 AM.
Timing data courtesy of
CompuLink
By Darryl Jackman
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