Sun, 14 Oct 2007, 04:20 PM Nostalgia Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #1

By Darryl Jackman

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Nostalgia Funny Car at the California Hot Rod Reunion, 16th California Hotrod Reunion, presented by the Automobile Club of Southern California listing lane, driver name, elapsed time, top speed, and position in order following run:

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Left Lane: Terry Capp Runs 6.031/239.93, Now #1
Right Lane: Stephen Romanazzi No Time, Now #2

11:53 a.m. Lots of folks have been waiting for this all weekend. We have nineteen Funnies here this weekend ready to run. This is being done by the 'Chicago Style' set up. For those not familiar it means that all the cars will pair in the first round randomly and run. The quickest eight cars will come back for the second round of qualifying and the two quickest cars will return for a final elimination round.

Romanazzi has a problem with a leak and he's forced to shut the car off. Capp lays down a pretty nice number in the Bubble Up Firebird.

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Left Lane: Chris Krabill Runs 6.185/234.74, Now #2
Right Lane: Jim Holtz Runs 6.203/235.72, Now #3

Now that's the way to qualify a pair of floppers. Both left together and stayed side by side to the stripe. Krabill was just a little quicker in Turner's Arrow and he turned on the win light. Holtz was not far behind in his Plymouth.

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Left Lane: Dennis La Charite Runs 6.128/234.98, Now #3
Right Lane: Sean Dale Runs 6.072/241.28, Now #2

Dale had some serious tire shake at about 200 feet, but managed to drive through it. La Charite was right there but short of Capp's pace setter. The only bad news on this run was that Dale was just a hair late with the chutes and got the car about half way into the sand.

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Left Lane: Lee Paul Jennings Jr Runs 6.160/220.85, Now #4
Right Lane: Nate Bugg Runs 7.517/112.54, Now #7

Jennings has been a winner on the Nostalgia circuit and both he and his dad have been playing this game for a long time. Bugg ran an NE1 altered before stepping up to his Funny Car. Tough break for Bugg as he has the chute rattle out of the pack after half track. Jennings is in that top eight to return for the second round.

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Left Lane: Ron Capps Runs 6.145/232.85, Now #4
Right Lane: Randy Walls Runs 10.611/73.98, Now #9

Capps is not the story in this pair at the moment. Walls blew the car up around half track and it appeared the fuel tank ruptured and the car burned for a long time. The Nova was still burning pretty hard when Walls got the car stopped and then the Safari went to work. Ok, here's the news about Walls. It appears he suffered a small amount of smoke inhalation but NO burns. That's extremely good news as the fire looked really nasty!

Capps really legged his first pass in the Charger and is now #4 on the eight car field.

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Left Lane: Bucky Austin Runs 5.952/237.78, Now #1
Right Lane: Jeff Utterback Runs 6.133/227.33, Now #5

You have to give these folks credit. They seem to have this kind of racing down pretty well. Austin has teamed with famous chassis builder, Steve Plueger, to produce the car that went to the top of the qualifying list and runs the first Funny Car '5' of the weekend. Utterback is currently qualified for the second round the the beautiful recreated Pisano & Matsubara Vega.

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Left Lane: Bob Godfrey Runs 6.147/229.06, Now #7
Right Lane: Rian Konno No Time, Now #14

Eddie Flournoy is turning the wrenches on George Doty's funny Mustang. the driver, Rian Konno, has the car get away and cross the center stripe so his 6.949 will be DQd. Godfrey legs one out and he's now in the #7 spot. This is getting really tough folks. Holtz just came to the tower and asked where he was qualified and looked really disappointed when I told him he'd already fallen to #10 with his 6.203.

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Left Lane: Mike Savage Runs 6.127/229.94, Now #4
Right Lane: Dan Horan Jr Runs 6.347/195.22, Now #12

One after the other the cars are quicker and quicker. Savage runs a .12 and can only muster a #4. One of the early hitters in the NFC class was Dan Horan. This time he's off his best pace and is #12, well out of the top eight that will coe back.

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Left Lane: Jeff Diehl No Time, Now #18

Diehl's team got the Holy Toledo Jeep started but it sounded horrible. Rather than do something really silly he clicked it off.

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Right Lane: Jack Wright Runs 10.876/62.27, Now #15

Wright closes out the first session with a single and a few problems. The car wasn't pulling and by about 330 Wright decided that he and the car had enough. The bump for the second round is a 6.147 and is held by Godfrey. This is a heck of a showing for the fiberglass forest crowd.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink