Fri, 5 Oct 2007, 08:46 PM Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #1

By Larry Sullivan

DINWIDDIE, Va. - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, Second annual Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals listing lane, driver name, elapsed time, top speed, and position in order following run:

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Left Lane: Bob Gilbertson Runs 4.980/298.27, Now #1
Right Lane: Jerry Toliver Runs 5.018/253.66, Now #2

7:44 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 76 degrees, relative humidity 78 percent, barometer 29.97 inches, adjusted altitude 1,416 feet, track temperature 83 degrees.

Most of the professional cars in all three categories this weekend are sporting two new decals - Superman's fist with lightning bolts and "Get Well John Force," and the NHRA Oval with Wally Parks' signature in the middle.

Two fairly good-looking passes to open the session, Toliver's header flames out early after leading Gilbertson for the first 1,000 feet. Gilbertson's first pass after a long NHRA layoff turned juicy in the shutdown area and he does not have enough clean run credits to avoid a penalty.

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Left Lane: Scott Kalitta Runs 5.174/212.59, Now #3
Right Lane: Gary Densham Runs 8.521/108.77, Now #4

Kalitta made a nice run for about 800 feet, then slowed. Densham dropped a cylinder and the unbalanced exhaust pressure was pushing the car out of the groove, so he shut it down.

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Left Lane: Tony Bartone Runs 4.877/303.78, Now #1
Right Lane: Tim Wilkerson Runs 8.742/90.69, Now #6

Wilkerson's car was moving around and chattering the tires, so he shut if off. Bartone made a very nice opening pass - Jim Dunn actually smiled, it was that good.

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Left Lane: Jeff Arend Runs 10.133/84.54, Now #8
Right Lane: Cruz Pedregon Runs 5.011/264.70, Now #3

Arend rattled the tires about 100 feet out and shut it off. Pedregon made a "full pull, but gave up 0.04 seconds to Bartone in the first half of the track and slowed well short of the finish line.

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Left Lane: Kenny Bernstein Runs 11.972/72.50, Now #10
Right Lane: Tommy Johnson Jr. Runs 4.790/312.06, Now #1

Bernstein rattled the tires and lifted early in the run. TJ made a very pretty run, quick, smooth and straight to the top of the list.

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Left Lane: Del Worsham Runs 4.858/311.20, Now #2
Right Lane: Jim Head Runs 10.955/66.36, Now #11

Head is eighth in the points and 119 points out of fourth place, so his championship hopes are all but over. He smoked the tires early and shut it off. Nice pass by Worsham, putting him second for now.

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Left Lane: Mike Ashley Runs 4.905/258.42, Now #4
Right Lane: Gary Scelzi Runs 11.762/75.39, Now #13

These two have real hopes of making "the countdown to one" by the end of this race, five (Scelzi) and fifteen points (Ashley) behind fourth place.

Scelzi will have to try again tomorrow, smoking the tires early. Ashley danced around on the top end, is in for now, but that time probably won't help him much in his quest for points this weekend.

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Left Lane: Ron Capps Runs 8.727/92.93, Now #10
Right Lane: Jack Beckman Runs 10.973/75.74, Now #14

Capps is in the best position to move into the top four, just three points behind an injured John Force and 25 behind third-place Beckman. But both drivers were on and off the throttle early, smoking the tires.

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Left Lane: Robert Hight Runs 4.790/307.58, Now #2
Right Lane: Tony Pedregon Runs 5.008/245.45, Now #7

Last pair. Hight tied TJ's ET, but wiggled a bit on the top end and scrubbed off enough speed to give Johnson the top spot. Pedregon lost a lot of ground in the first half of the track and the header flames went out early.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink