Drag Race Central | Presented by Summitracing.com

Sat, 4 Nov 2006, 10:27 PM

Top Alcohol Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Final Session

By Dan Bennett

LAS VEGAS - Notes from final, round 3 qualifying in Top Alcohol Funny Car at the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, Pacific Division, Shortline Express Markets Gambler Shootout at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway 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: Mert Littlefield Runs 6.246/208.01, Now #23; Best prior run: 11.011/80.23, Was #26
Right Lane: Dale Van Gundy Runs 6.207/202.00, Now #22; Best prior run: 5.999/239.65, Was #22

6:32 p.m. and Clint Thompson is on the bump spot at 5.736.

Van Gundy is going to have to run a personal best to break into this very tough field.

Mert has the experience and power but has yet to make a representative run.

And we're 0 for 2. Van Gundy hit the tires hard and moved toward the wall. Littlefield got quite a bit further down the track before his weaving started. The weekend is over for both cars.

Weather conditions: air temperature 64 degrees, relative humidity 22 percent, barometer 26.44 inches, adjusted altitude 4,579 feet, track temperature 78 degrees.

Left Lane: Steve Gasparrelli Runs 7.634/138.78, Now #26; Best prior run: 9.943/110.15, Was #26
Right Lane: John Patton Runs 8.720/101.35, Now #21; Best prior run: 5.967/244.29, Was #21

Who would have figured that Gasparrelli would be sitting in the 26th position going into the last session?

As is usual in desert climates, we're cooling off really fast and the track temp is dropping rapidly. That's not good news for these high horsepower cars.

If I were in staging right now and not in the field, I'd be pretty worried.

Both cars hit the tires and almost do more sideways than forward movement all the way down track. Gasparrelli pedals a couple of times in frustration but his car never really hooks up.

Left Lane: Mike Drake Runs 6.136/229.70, Now #23; Best prior run: 6.295/172.32, Was #25
Right Lane: Paul Crifasi Runs 6.028/188.99, Now #20; Best prior run: 5.939/241.41, Was #20

Drake's having a bit of problem getting lined up. He backs up from the burnout and is about a half a tire out of the groove. His crew moves him back in.

Crifasi has a pretty nice run going and the chute comes out at about 700 feet.

Drake runs to the left of the groove for most of the pass.

Left Lane: Mark Woznichak Runs 5.844/248.93, Now #15; Best prior run: 6.255/180.98, Was #25
Right Lane: Ross Stickler Runs 5.933/242.98, Now #19; Best prior run: 5.903/244.25, Was #18

Woz's crew has been through a major thrash since last round. One of the crewmembers crossed a couple of the plug wires so the car obviously was a weak pup. But that wasn't the worst part. The chute shook out and since the car didn't have enough speed to blossom it, promptly dove underneath the back of the car. Not only did it wrap itself around the rear axle, but mananged to cause a bunch of damage to the floor panels, plumbing,and anything else on the bottom of the car. Thanks to ace reporter Jim Luikens for that interesting information.

Even though the car was certainly capable, it doesn't look like the conditions are here right now. Mark moved to the centerline and did his best to keep his car off it though it looked like he might have touched it at least once. It doesn't really matter since the ET on that excellent driving job just wasn't quick enough.

The Stickler National Guard car got to the finish line under power, but just like all t! hose before him did not run fast enough to bump in.

Look for the car to be at Pomona with a wonderful promotion for Operation Snowball, which provides Disneyland trips to the children of service people killed in the Middle East. It's a great cause that deserves support.

Left Lane: Ken Kraus Runs 5.840/249.26, Now #15; Best prior run: 5.912/219.97, Was #20
Right Lane: Bernie Harrington No Time, Now #19; Best prior run: 5.891/243.15, Was #18

6:49 p.m.

Harrington makes his burnout but just continues to idle down the track. It's a long way to go and he doesn't make it up the hill to the turnoff. We have a slight delay while his car is being removed from the track.

I really thought Krause was going to do it because it was a stellar pass. The car left hard and made it to half track in good shape, but at that point it started to drift left out of the groove. Ken fought the car the rest of the way across the finish line and misses qualifying.

Left Lane: Hank Coolidge Runs 5.962/246.89, Now #18; Best prior run: 5.869/245.45, Was #18
Right Lane: Dennis Taylor Runs 6.368/178.83, Now #17; Best prior run: 5.849/246.66, Was #17

Coolidge told Jim Luikens that he has bought 2 Bob Minor engines for next season and will be replacing the Chrysler clone with those. In previous lives, the engine which is based on Chevrolet design, has been known as Arias and Fontana.

Taylor makes a decent run until the car starts heading for the wall on the top end. He keeps everything in one piece but it kills his ET.

Coolidge snakes his way to the finish line.

Left Lane: Jeff Carroll Runs 9.908/101.62, Now #14; Best prior run: 5.821/249.72, Was #14
Right Lane: Larry Miner Runs 5.690/251.30, Now #1; Best prior run: 5.806/247.79, Was #13

Miner is in the ex-Bucky Austin car which he has rebodied.

Miner runs the engine we were just mentioning.

He leaves hard and moves to the wall just like the previous cars, but this thing is on a pass and Miner does what no one else has been able to do. Not only that, he moves all the way to the top position.

Larry Miner's incremental times: 60ft-0.967 sec., 330ft-2.513, 660ft-3.742/200.80mph, 1,000ft-4.796

Carroll got out of shape early in the run.

Roger Bateman is now on the bump spot at 5.726.

Left Lane: Don Hudson Runs 7.536/123.76, Now #13; Best prior run: 5.790/242.02, Was #12
Right Lane: Jason Rupert Runs 5.752/252.19, Now #11; Best prior run: 5.800/245.00, Was #13

Hudson put in a fresh bullet this pass as he torched a head last pass.

This is looking like the same race over and over. Rupert moves toward the wall, Hudson moves to the centerline, and neither step up.

If Miner hadn't just laid his pass down, you'd think there was no hope. Is he going to be the only one to figure out the track?

Left Lane: Clint Thompson Runs 5.668/251.86, Now #1; Best prior run: 5.736/249.16, Was #9
Right Lane: David Ray Runs 5.799/239.02, Now #12; Best prior run: 5.786/247.70, Was #12

Ray ran into major ignition problems last session and did what every good racer does -- there's not much time for troubleshooting so you just change everything.

Ray is a class car certainly capable of getting in. But all the glory on this pair goes to Clint Thompson.

The car was straighter than any other this session (which isn't saying much) and vaults to the top spot.

We've now tied for the quickest Divisional TAFC field ever.

Left Lane: Roger Bateman Runs 5.676/252.43, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.726/250.97, Was #9
Right Lane: John Weaver No Time, Now #10; Best prior run: 5.742/249.86, Was #10

With the bumping going on, Ron August Jr is on the bump spot at 5.725. There's a lot more going on this session than we thought there would be.

Weaver rolled the beams and Bateman thunders into the field. This is now the quickest ever TAFC field at a Divisional race.

Ron August Jr is on the bump spot at 5.725, and he's up next.

Left Lane: Von Smith Runs 5.721/250.55, Now #9; Best prior run: 5.714/251.25, Was #8
Right Lane: Ron August Jr Runs 5.694/254.76, Now #4; Best prior run: 5.725/253.09, Was #9

The previous quickest field was at Sonoma, so the West Coast is maintaining bragging rights. Of course, Frank Manzo might have something to say about that.

Smith last raced NHRA at this race last year.

Both cars made nice looking runs that looked faster than they proved to be.

August bumps out Smith.

The bump spot is 5.710 and I think it's going to stay there since I'm pretty sure the rest of the cars are already qualified.

Left Lane: Steve Harker Runs 5.646/254.18, Now #1; Best prior run: 5.700/249.58, Was #6
Right Lane: Doug Gordon Runs 9.885/84.73, Now #8; Best prior run: 5.710/250.27, Was #8

Just about the time we thought things were going to settle down, Harker gets everyone's attention.

Gordon gets out of shape and has to shut off.

Steve Harker's incremental times: 60ft-0.958 sec., 330ft-2.502, 660ft-3.718/204.17mph, 1,000ft-4.761

Left Lane: Jay Payne Runs 5.683/256.75, Now #5; Best prior run: 5.695/254.38, Was #6
Right Lane: Brian Hough Runs 5.655/254.18, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.703/251.11, Was #7

Payne started out the session in #1 and by now has dropped to #6.

Between Payne and Hough, you have to think someone's going to shake things up one last time this session.

Hough gets close, but just misses the top spot. Payne runs top speed of the meet so far.

Both drivers earned their keep on that one as they were super snaky all the way down.

Payne had a BIG top end charge, as his half track speed was below most of the other fast guys this session.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink