Sun, 18 May 2008, 05:42 PM Funny Car Round 2 Eliminations

By Dave Rowe

BRISTOL, Tenn. - Results of round 2 eliminations in Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, Eighth annual O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals presented by Q:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   71 Cruz Pedregon                         388 Jim Head                     
E2                   0.099  7.017 128.07     ****WINNER****  0.064  4.851 321.12
 Prior rounds:
E1    (J Force     ) 0.021  4.898 316.82      (J Toliver   ) 0.103  4.834 319.29
 Qualified:            #10  4.831 313.29                        #2  4.785 323.89

Pedregon is 7 - 3 against Head in prior events.

Pedregon hits the throttle, strikes the tires about 100 feet out, pedals a couple of times, then gives up on the run. Head goes right down the groove to take the win.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   10 Ashley Force                          507 Melanie Troxel               
E2                   0.083  4.863 314.90     ****WINNER****  0.103  4.820 321.73
 Prior rounds:
E1    (G Scelzi    ) 0.079  4.791 316.23      (T Pedregon  ) 0.092  4.816 319.29
 Qualified:             #3  4.792 324.98                       #11  4.839 318.62

This was a good side-by-side. Force leaves first, then Troxel starts to gain ground. The rear of Troxel's car was moving around all the way through the run but she never backed off the throttle. Troxel drove around Force a little past half-track then pulled away for the win.

Melanie Troxel's incremental margins (negative if behind): 60ft(-0.016), 330 ft(-0.010), 660ft(-0.007), 1,000ft(0.008). MOV: 0.0234 seconds (approximately 11 feet).

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    2 Robert Hight                          347 Tim Wilkerson                
E2   ****WINNER****  0.093  4.773 314.31                     0.091  4.884 296.70
 Prior rounds:
E1    (D Worsham   ) 0.094  4.746 320.28      (G Densham   ) 0.114  4.823 311.77
 Qualified:             #5  4.803 311.63                        #4  4.802 318.24

A couple of pretty good runs, they were even off the line, then Hight starts to pull away. Wilkerson slowly lost ground, then it looked like he may have hurt the engine as he went through the lights.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
 7701 Mike Neff                              28 Ron Capps                    
E2   ****WINNER****  0.076  4.828 319.98                     0.069  4.873 315.27
 Prior rounds:
E1    (T Bartone   ) 0.087  4.877 310.98      (B Tasca III ) 0.087  4.827 316.52
 Qualified:             #1  4.783 321.04                        #9  4.831 317.79

Another good drag race, these two were glued together for the first 300 feet, then Neff pulled away and increased his lead at every incremental.

In the next round it will be Hight with lane choice over Neff and Troxel with lane choice over Head.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink