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Sun, 18 May 2008, 08:56 PM

Funny Car Round 3 Eliminations

By Rick Green

BRISTOL, Tenn. - Results of round 3 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
  507 Melanie Troxel                        388 Jim Head                     
E3   ****WINNER****  0.108  5.639 254.04                     0.103 29.548  36.25
 Prior rounds:
E2    (A Force     ) 0.103  4.820 321.73      (C Pedregon  ) 0.064  4.851 321.12
E1    (T Pedregon  ) 0.092  4.816 319.29      (J Toliver   ) 0.103  4.834 319.29
 Qualified:            #11  4.839 318.62                        #2  4.785 323.89

This is the first time Troxel and Head have faced each other in eliminations. Head is up in smoke as soon as he hits the throttle and never recovers. Troxel lost traction around 150 feet and then she pedals it, and gets it to hook up. She was out of the groove on the top end and got real close to the wall, but takes the win. she is going to her first Funny Car final.


 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    2 Robert Hight                         7701 Mike Neff                    
E3                   0.088  4.884 259.36     ****WINNER****  0.077  4.814 289.82
 Prior rounds:
E2    (T Wilkerson ) 0.093  4.773 314.31      (R Capps     ) 0.076  4.828 319.98
E1    (D Worsham   ) 0.094  4.746 320.28      (T Bartone   ) 0.087  4.877 310.98
 Qualified:             #5  4.803 311.63                        #1  4.783 321.04

Neff is 1 - 0 against Hight in prior events. Neff is out the gate first, but Hight has the lead by the time they go by the Christmas tree, but then the engine starting eating itself around 800 feet. Neff takes the lead at 1000 feet, but then his candles are out as he goes across the finish line. He still takes the win and will have lane choice over Troxel in the final. We will have a fist time winner in Funny Car.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink