Sun, 18 May 2008, 10:36 PM Funny Car Final, Round 4 Eliminations

By Rick Green

BRISTOL, Tenn. - Results of final, round 4 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                       7701 Mike Neff                    
E4   ****WINNER****  0.076  5.066 310.27                     0.053  6.471 146.21
 Prior rounds:
E3    (J Head      ) 0.108  5.639 254.04      (R Hight     ) 0.077  4.814 289.82
E2    (A Force     ) 0.103  4.820 321.73      (R Capps     ) 0.076  4.828 319.98
E1    (T Pedregon  ) 0.092  4.816 319.29      (T Bartone   ) 0.087  4.877 310.98
 Qualified:            #11  4.839 318.62                        #1  4.783 321.04

Neff is 1 - 0 against Troxel in prior events and this is the first time they have faced each other in a final round. Neff has problems after the burnout and they can't get the body up. The team is scrambling around and finally he has to stage it after not getting the body to raise up after the burnout. Neff is off the starting line first and then around 400 feet his engine goes away with a huge fireball. Troxel started to lose traction and pedaled it and got it to hook up and she is the first woman to win in both Funny Car and Top Fuel and is the 14th person to do it. She is the 82nd Funny Car winner.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink