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Fri, 7 Nov 2003, 06:49 PM

Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #2

By Darryl Jackman

POMONA, Calif. - Notes from round 2 qualifying in Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 39th annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals 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: David Benjamin Runs 5.018/294.75, Now #12; Best prior run: 14.588/77.22, Was #23
Right Lane: Gary Scelzi Runs 18.298/64.36, Now #24; Best prior run: 15.347/67.74, Was #24

2:59 PM It's 'Nasty' Benjamin and Gary Scelzi making up the first pair. Both had problems yesterday and struck the tires early in their runs. There's been sun on the track all day and the conditions might be a bit tough on the nitro cars. That's a career best for Benjamin in his first outing of the season. Scelzi suffered tire smoke before the car had moved more than five feet.

Left Lane: Cruz Pedregon Runs 4.929/308.57, Now #9; Best prior run: 12.359/77.70, Was #23
Right Lane: Tony Bartone No Time, Now #21; Best prior run: 8.802/94.14, Was #20

Bartone has problems and is pushed away from the line after the burnout. Cruz makes the show but he was heading towards the wall as he neared the finish. A hole went out and it pushed him back into the middle of the lane. Lots of dust kicked up but no damage.

Left Lane: Stephen Neese Runs 9.553/78.89, Now #22; Best prior run: 10.207/90.27, Was #23
Right Lane: Bob Bode Runs 5.249/231.60, Now #14; Best prior run: 7.481/109.38, Was #19

Bode suffered from holes going out as he made his way down track. The throttle blades were going open close, open close all the way down. Neese had all the collective symptoms of a belt coming off at about 400 feet.

Left Lane: Ron Capps Runs 4.912/313.58, Now #7; Best prior run: 9.744/91.76, Was #23
Right Lane: Gary Densham Runs 5.457/187.16, Now #17; Best prior run: 7.384/120.26, Was #19

Densham has raw fuel coming out the pipes at 1000 feet but Capps gets a nice pass on the books to make him #7.

Left Lane: Bob Gilbertson Runs 5.602/180.57, Now #19; Best prior run: 8.187/137.25, Was #21
Right Lane: Keith Jackson Runs 5.062/291.01, Now #15; Best prior run: 6.772/125.48, Was #19

Lot's of unburned fuel out of both cars. More for Gilbertson than Jackson. The strange thing was that the smoke was brown coming out of both cars and not white.

Left Lane: Terry Haddock Runs 4.971/303.16, Now #13; Best prior run: 7.061/122.47, Was #21
Right Lane: Jack Wyatt Runs 12.449/77.83, Now #21; Best prior run: 6.235/149.40, Was #20

Wyatt just jumped up on the tires and shook hard. Haddock gets a nice run down and makes the show.

Left Lane: Dean Skuza Runs 9.018/89.21, Now #11; Best prior run: 4.931/280.37, Was #11
Right Lane: Grant Downing Runs 5.097/264.34, Now #17; Best prior run: 5.355/237.96, Was #18

Skuza had the car set on kill and ran a .901 sixty foot number. Problem was that just after that the car was up in smoke. Downing was off the pedal at about 100 feet but got back into it and finished the run. At the lights he got very close to the centerline. Downing just misses the field.

Left Lane: Phil Burkart Runs 4.864/315.42, Now #5; Best prior run: 4.922/313.00, Was #9
Right Lane: Dale Creasy Jr. No Time, Now #14; Best prior run: 5.010/303.78, Was #14

Creasy had to be pushed back from the burnout by hand as he couldn't get the car into reverse and after that he was shutoff on the line. Burkart gets into the top half on a really straight pass. The chutes were out early this time.

Left Lane: Cory Lee Runs 4.864/315.71, Now #5; Best prior run: 4.920/294.75, Was #9
Right Lane: Tommy Johnson Jr. Runs 5.536/185.51, Now #12; Best prior run: 4.965/301.00, Was #12

TJ has to lift down track as he began to haze the tires. Lee improves and his now a top half racer.

Left Lane: Del Worsham Runs 4.856/312.71, Now #4; Best prior run: 4.854/318.09, Was #4
Right Lane: Tim Wilkerson Runs 5.182/229.98, Now #8; Best prior run: 4.879/317.05, Was #8

Wilkerson and Worsham were side by side until about 1000 feet. Wilkerson was getting close to Worsham's lane so he called it off early. Worsham slows ever so slightly from his Thursday pass.

Left Lane: Tony Pedregon Runs 4.859/316.45, Now #3; Best prior run: 4.832/318.77, Was #3
Right Lane: Scotty Cannon Runs 4.971/303.71, Now #7; Best prior run: 4.872/314.31, Was #7

Tony and Scotty was side by side most of the way down. Scotty started sacrificing some pistons to the aluminum gods and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Tony made a nice pass but Thursday's run was just a taste better.

Left Lane: John Force Runs 4.968/243.06, Now #1; Best prior run: 4.771/321.65, Was #1
Right Lane: Whit Bazemore Runs 4.827/318.02, Now #2; Best prior run: 4.802/320.58, Was #2

Force really had his hands full on this pass. The car moved around in the lane and appeared to kick the rods out in the lights. He coasted to a stop and quickly came out of the escape hatch. I noticed he was very carefull not to touch anything with his left hand. The Safety Safari had problems getting the body up on the Mustang and kept pulling on the handle. The fire went out on its own and Force did not try to help raise the body. In the other lane Bazemore got so close to the centerline had the concussion blew the cone over AFTER the car went by.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink