Sun, 12 Oct 2003, 04:37 PM Funny Car Round 3 Eliminations

By Dave Rowe

ENNIS, Texas - Results of round 3 eliminations in Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 18th annual O'Reilly Fall Nationals presented by Castrol Syntec:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    3 Del Worsham                             1 John Force
E3                   0.090  4.867 312.39     ****WINNER****  0.020  4.888 313.15
 Prior rounds:
E2    (W Bazemore  ) 0.046  4.819 321.88      (P Burkart Jr) 0.096  4.833 320.05
E1    (J Wyatt     ) 0.119  4.810 321.65      (C Lee       ) 0.056  4.861 318.69
 Qualified:             #4  4.865 321.19                        #1  4.814 322.11

3:25 PM Current weather conditions: 75 degrees, 62 percent relative humidity, the barometer 30.06 inches, with a track temperature of 99 degrees.

Force gets a big hole-shot and starts pulling away. Worsham starts making up ground but runs out of room.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    2 Tony Pedregon                           9 Dean Skuza
E3                   0.070  5.300 205.24     ****WINNER****  0.010  5.084 280.37
 Prior rounds:
E2    (G Densham   ) 0.085  4.862 313.80      (G Scelzi    ) 0.044  4.959 304.67
E1    (R Capps     ) 0.043  4.873 315.78      (T Wilkerson ) 0.067  4.968 287.35
 Qualified:             #6  4.894 300.00                       #10  4.936 305.81

Skuza gets the hole-shot but Pedregon starts making up ground right away. He gets close at half-track, then the blower belt breaks and Skuza drives away. Force will have lane choice over Skuza in the finals. Dean Skuza's incremental margins: 60ft(0.074), 330 ft(0.056), 660ft(0.011), 1,000ft(0.054). MOV: 0.2761 seconds (approximately 83 feet).

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink