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Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #2
Fri, 1 Aug 2003, 11:33 PM
Notes from round 2 qualifying in Funny Car 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: Terry Haddock Runs 5.876/159.59, Now #15; No Prior Run
Right Lane: Ron Capps Runs 4.937/302.08, Now #2; Best prior run: 8.097/113.32, Was
#19
7:34 PM Funny Car is now coming to the starting line. Haddock didn't make the first
session today and Capps had the same half track smoke problem that most of the field suffered.
Capps had the header flames change color and start mixing at about 900 feet. He legged it on
through at the way to the #2 spot. Haddock has problems in the other lane but is now in the
field. That makes twenty cars that have made a hit in the class today.
Left Lane: Dean Skuza No Time, Now #20; Best prior run: 6.419/137.75, Was #19
Right Lane: Dale Creasy Jr. Runs 5.053/211.13, Now #8; Best prior run: 6.705/129.68,
Was #20
Skuza brings the Meat Loaf racer into the beams and crosses the center line and
takes out the finish line cone. The replay shows that Skuza took out the mph start cone but
appears to miss the finish line marker. That was enough to DQ the run for Skuza. Lucky for
Creasy the replay showed that Skuza missed the finish line marker or his run would have been
thrown out as well. His time will stand.
Left Lane: Cruz Pedregon Runs 4.974/308.78, Now #4; Best prior run: 6.411/134.79,
Was #19
Right Lane: Johnny Gray Runs 4.883/312.71, Now #1; Best prior run: 6.102/155.02, Was
#18
Side by side runs and it's Johnny Gray taking over the #1 spot. Cruz was just a few
ticks behind and goes from outside to #4.
Left Lane: Jack Wyatt Runs 5.114/281.42, Now #13; Best prior run: 5.427/213.84, Was
#16
Right Lane: Arnie Karp Runs 4.967/300.06, Now #4; Best prior run: 5.893/233.48, Was
#19
Another great side by side run and Arnie Karp has his ride in at #4. Wyatt was side
by side with Karp but the header flames went green at about 1100 feet, indicating the engine was
starting to run on aluminum instead of nitromethane. Wyatt will make the show with that early
shutoff.
Left Lane: Bob Gilbertson Runs 5.491/195.53, Now #17; Best prior run: 5.329/246.57,
Was #16
Right Lane: Keith Jackson Runs 5.142/244.78, Now #14; Best prior run: 5.753/169.47,
Was #18
Jackson was on a career best pass until something goes wrong with the car at about
1000 feet. He clicks it and coasts across the stripe #14 in the show and thinking about what
might have been. Gilbertson had his own problems and remains outside the field. The temperatures
falling fast and it's down to 66 degrees. Humidity is 64% and the barometer is 29.99 and
rising.
Left Lane: Tony Pedregon Runs 4.837/309.70, Now #1; Best prior run: 5.213/226.89,
Was #16
Right Lane: Scotty Cannon Runs 4.941/296.05, Now #5; Best prior run: 5.415/228.19,
Was #18
It wasn't pretty for Tony but he's now #1. Lots of smoke and lots of dead pistons.
Cannon was hidden behind his own wall of smoke as he took a burst panel out of the car in the
lights and had pieces bouncing down the track behind him. That was a top half effort for him as
well.
Left Lane: Gary Densham Runs 6.099/148.12, Now #15; Best prior run: 5.076/295.85,
Was #14
Right Lane: Tim Wilkerson Runs 4.935/287.72, Now #4; Best prior run: 5.152/282.30,
Was #17
Densham has the rubber band fall off the engine around half track and his engine
falls silent and spews fuel out of the pipes. Wilkerson throws up a good number but it cost him
a bunch of parts as well. Another car disappears behind a wall of piston smoke.
Left Lane: Gary Scelzi Runs 4.849/318.92, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.035/304.25, Was
#11
Right Lane: Frank Pedregon Runs 5.205/286.19, Now #13; Best prior run: 5.048/295.85,
Was #13
Scelzi sets a track record speed with this pass and just misses Tony Pedregon's top
qualifying time. Frank Pedregon was on a good one but he has to pedal the car one around half
track. That cost him a bunch of time on the scoreboard.
Left Lane: Tommy Johnson Jr. Runs 5.073/0.00, Now #11; Best prior run:
4.986/296.11, Was #10
Right Lane: Whit Bazemore Runs 4.845/290.07, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.038/299.46,
Was #12
Bazemore had his hands full as he appeared to lose a left rear tire just before the
lights. The pieces of tires blew the back part of the body off and Whit did a fantastic job of
driving the car to a stop without hitting anything at all. Losing the tire dropped the chassis
to the ground and there were sparks and fire everywhere. We have pieces of carbon fiber body ALL
over the racing surface and this could be a fairly long cleanup. Johnson was never in the
picture as he shutoff before 100 feet. Almost lost in all the excitement is the fact that the
ill fated Bazemore pass left him in the #2 spot behind Tony.
Left Lane: John Force Runs 4.814/316.90, Now #1; Best prior run: 4.893/314.61, Was
#5
Right Lane: Del Worsham Runs 4.827/316.75, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.012/303.43, Was
#12
WOW! What else can I say? That was one of the prettiest side by side fuel runs I've
seen in a long time. Side by side and just stuck to the track. Force regains the top spot in the
show and Worsham slides in right behind him. Great way to end an exciting session of Fuel Funny
Car. 8:27 PM
Timing data courtesy of
CompuLink
By Darryl Jackman
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