Thu, 6 Nov 2003, 04:23 PM Top Alcohol Dragster Qualifying Notes, Session #1

By Darryl Jackman

POMONA, Calif. - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Top Alcohol Dragster at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 39th annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals listing lane, driver name, elapsed time, top speed, and position in order following run:

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Left Lane: David Wilson Runs 9.244/82.79, Now #2
Right Lane: Chris Lane Runs 6.402/136.97, Now #1

12:54 PM First round of alcohol dragster is on the pad. Wilson shakes hard and shuts off. Lanes has holes out but legs it in through.

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Left Lane: Mike Austin Runs 5.749/243.33, Now #2
Right Lane: Randy Eakins Runs 5.662/244.47, Now #1

Austin dangles the front wheels but the car just doesn't seem to have any poop. Eakins has holes out in the other lane.

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Left Lane: Darryl Hitchman Runs 5.884/246.21, Now #3
Right Lane: Gary Anderson Runs 6.180/235.64, Now #4

Both cars in this pair sounded flat all the way down. Hitchman has the better run and goes to an early #3.

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Left Lane: Joey Severance Runs 8.231/135.52, Now #7
Right Lane: Bill Reichert Runs 5.369/265.38, Now #1

Severance spins the tires off the line and disappears behind the smoke. Reichert doesn't have any problems and goes to the head of the class.

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Left Lane: Chris Demke Runs 5.558/255.15, Now #2
Right Lane: John Haley No Time, Now #10

Demke gets a pretty nice pass but Haley is shut off on the starting line.

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Left Lane: Duane Shields Runs 5.331/269.56, Now #1
Right Lane: Don Hudson Runs 5.608/247.38, Now #4

Big run for Shields and he takes over the top spot. Hudson slots in at #4.

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Left Lane: Larry Miersch Runs 5.448/250.37, Now #3
Right Lane: Mitch Myers Runs 19.792/59.31, Now #13

Myers is smoking tires as the hit and shuts it down. Miersch gets a pretty nice pass and he's well into the top half of the show.

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Left Lane: Marty Thacker Runs 10.173/110.84, Now #14
Right Lane: Mike Cofini Runs 5.547/257.48, Now #4

It's shake, pedal and shutoff for Thacker. All that happened in the first 100 feet. Cofini was down the middle of the lane and is now another top half car. We need one more car to create a bump spot.

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Left Lane: Darren Nicholson Runs 5.446/259.16, Now #3
Right Lane: David Wells Runs 5.491/241.67, Now #5

Nice runs here for a pair of blown alky cars. That puts Marty Thacker on the bump spot at 10.17.

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Left Lane: Morgan Lucas Runs 5.352/265.06, Now #2
Right Lane: Alan Bradshaw Runs 5.458/250.60, Now #6

Now we have a heavy hitting pair of A/Fuel cars. Bradshaw was fairly slow to 60 feet, 1.001, but picked it up pretty well on the other end. Lucas had a .925 and it carried over in the ET. Lucas to #2 behind Shields.

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Left Lane: Dave Hirata Runs 5.501/262.39, Now #8
Right Lane: Steve Federlin Runs 5.507/258.62, Now #9

Hirata cards a .948 short time but it isn't quite enough. Federlin was a tick quicker but the two runs were almost identical from there. The session will end with Shields on the pole and Anderson on the bump with his 6.18.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink