Sun, 4 May 2008, 02:38 PM Top Fuel Round 2 Eliminations

By Dan Bennett

MADISON, Ill. - Results of round 2 eliminations in Top Fuel at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 12th annual O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals presented by Castrol:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   91 Larry Dixon                            48 Hillary Will                 
E2                   0.068  4.678 309.42     ****WINNER****  0.104  4.629 308.99
 Prior rounds:
E1    (B Vandergrif) 0.107  4.721 311.70      (T Buff      ) 0.093  5.648 217.98
 Qualified:             #6  4.528 321.96                        #3  4.502 324.59

Still a cloudless sky, but the track temp is a manageable 112 degrees.

Dixon is 6 - 1 against Will in prior races.

And the KB racing team's consistency pays off as they make another smooth, quick pass. Dixon did all he could on the line and was ahead until just past half track but Hillary shot by on the top end and won by about 6 feet.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   22 Doug Kalitta                          123 Antron Brown                 
E2   ****WINNER****  0.073  4.773 283.07                     0.055 10.922  64.35
 Prior rounds:
E1    (D Herbert   ) 0.082  4.549 315.64      (B Bernstein ) 0.072  5.929 194.30
 Qualified:             #5  4.524 312.42                        #4  4.517 331.94

Kalitta in the favored left lane, Brown lines up in the right.

Kalitta takes an easy win. Brown's car started to leave hard as it squatted and torqued over, but just when it should have begun to build big speed the tires let go.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   44 David Grubnic                           2 Rod Fuller                   
E2                   0.095  5.074 209.69     ****WINNER****  0.082  4.570 325.45
 Prior rounds:
E1    (L Novelli   ) 0.087  4.542 321.19      (C McClenatha) 0.067  4.530 328.06
 Qualified:             #1  4.467 319.90                        #8  4.541 321.50

Fuller takes out the #1 qualifier with a sweet run in the less-favored right lane. The cars were side by side until about 660 feet, when the Carpenters' Union car started hazing the tires and began snaking back and forth in the lane.

Rod Fuller's incremental times: 60ft-0.867 sec., 330ft-2.189, 660ft-3.105/276.13mph, 1,000ft-3.888

Fuller has lane choice over the Kalitta team, and their work is cut out for them next round since the margin is two tenths of a second.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  530 Alan Bradshaw                           1 Tony Schumacher              
E2                   0.069  9.761  93.25     ****WINNER****  0.094  5.286 250.74
 Prior rounds:
E1    (J Todd      ) 0.064  4.561 319.67      (M Lucas     ) 0.063  4.531 323.97
 Qualified:            #10  4.550 318.24                        #2  4.495 326.71

Bradshaw smokes 'em early, Schumacher got a little farther. Schumacher recovered quickly and pedalled a couple of times on his way to the win.

Hillary gets lane choice over the Army car in the semi finals.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink