Sun, 4 Sep 2005, 11:35 AM Top Alcohol Dragster Round 1 Eliminations

By Larry Sullivan

CLERMONT, Ind. - Results of round 1 eliminations in Top Alcohol Dragster at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 51st annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   34 Ken Perry                              10 Steve Federlin               
E1                   0.079  5.411 263.56     ****WINNER****  0.015  5.441 261.07
 Qualified:             #8  5.447 258.17                        #9  5.448 260.16

10:06 a.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 68 degrees, relative humidity 52 percent, barometer 29.79 inches, adjusted altitude 921 feet, track temperature 88 degrees.

Federlin, on a holeshot. Perry was closing the gap, but ran out of track. Steve Federlin's incremental margins: 60ft(0.036), 330 ft(0.057), 660ft(0.053), 1,000ft(0.042). MOV: 0.0341 seconds (approximately 13 feet).

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    2 Bill Reichert                         308 Dave Hedges Jr.              
E1   ****WINNER****  0.111  5.358 263.46                     0.106  5.884 208.17
 Qualified:             #4  5.350 270.54                       #13  5.537 257.38

Hedges led early, but his car nosed over before half track.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   39 Noah Condo                           6610 Brandon Johnson              
E1                   0.217  5.526 261.12     ****WINNER****  0.078  5.465 262.08
 Qualified:            #10  5.452 261.32                        #7  5.439 260.66

Condo struggled in qualifying, getting in on his last shot. Johnson had three good runs in four tries. Condo was way late and never had a chance.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   33 Marty Thacker                          36 Jeff Bohr                    
E1   ****WINNER****  0.052  5.369 266.42                     0.088  5.459 259.76
 Qualified:             #6  5.415 263.46                       #11  5.456 258.86

Both cars ran well in qualifying, except for one round where Bohr broke on the burnout.Weather conditions: air temperature 75 degrees, relative humidity 45 percent, barometer 29.79 inches, adjusted altitude 1,444 feet, track temperature 97 degrees.

This was a pretty good drag race to half track, then Thacker steadily opened his lead with his best pass of the weekend. Bohr matched his qualifying effort, but it wasn't enough this time out.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  475 Steve Torrence                          6 Arthur Gallant               
E1   ****WINNER****  0.096  5.241 267.80                     0.099  5.417 271.02
 Qualified:             #5  5.400 262.64                       #12  5.498 268.22

Gallant went in deep, maybe not intentionally because he was second off the line and fell behind quickly. Torrence's car is very quick off the line for an A-Fuel car, posting a 0.912 60-foot time, and he went on to run low ET of the weekend to get lane choice against Reichert next round.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   58 Jared Dreher                         7470 Hillary Will                 
E1                   0.079  7.432 119.22     ****WINNER****  0.076  5.363 267.96
 Qualified:            #15  5.601 250.09                        #2  5.327 269.46

Dreher lost the blower belt about 300 feet out after a stout 0.916 60-foot time. Will has lane choice against Johnson next round.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
 717M Aaron Olivarez                        303 Todd Datweiler               
E1   ****WINNER****  0.077  5.266 270.05                     0.089 16.541  57.37
 Qualified:             #3  5.327 267.00                       #14  5.568 256.65

Datweiler smoked the tires. Olivarez ran second-quick of the round to get lane choice against Thacker.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    4 Ashley Force                           42 Gene Snow                    
E1                   0.091  5.563 260.56     ****WINNER****  0.109  5.333 246.98
 Qualified:            #16  5.608 261.62                        #1  5.268 265.53

Force squeaked in on the bump spot - and actually thought she had not qualified for a while after the run. Snow won Super Eliminator here in 1967, before Ashley was born, and the two have faced off several times in Division 4 competition. This was no-contest, Snow ahead before the 60-foot marker and pulling away. He will have lane choice against federlin in the second round.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink