Thu, 5 Feb 2009, 04:20 PM Top Alcohol Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #1

By Darryl Jackman

POMONA, Calif. - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Top Alcohol Funny Car at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, 49th annual Kragen O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals listing lane, driver name, elapsed time, top speed, and position in order following run:

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Right Lane: Ken Webster Runs 5.719/254.90, Now #1

12:25 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 66 degrees, relative humidity 42 percent, barometer 28.92 inches, adjusted altitude 2,112 feet, track temperature 82 degrees.

Nice opener for Webster as the weather continues to go down hill. The day began with cloudless skies and now it's full overcast and very threatening.

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Left Lane: Tony Bartone Runs 5.837/244.78, Now #2
Right Lane: Leif Andreasson No Time, Now #4

Seems strange to see Bartone back in an alcohol funny after several years of nitro. He's paired against Andreasson from Sweden. This was very scary. Andreasson left with Bartone and around 330ft the marker went flying and Andreasson crossed into the lane next to Bartone. Andreasson hit the brakes and fell in behind Bartone, who did get a time.

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Left Lane: Mike Drake No Time, Now #6
Right Lane: Daniel Oliver Runs 6.807/165.78, Now #3

Drake was pushed away and Oliver was on and off the throttle all the way to the finish.

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Left Lane: Brian Smith Runs 5.873/248.25, Now #3
Right Lane: Rian Konno Runs 6.308/194.77, Now #4

Smith wandered the lane a bit but sill manages to move to #3. Konno left first but suffered a real lack of power.

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Left Lane: Brian Thiel Runs 6.088/241.97, Now #4
Right Lane: Bernie Harrington Runs 7.955/80.80, Now #7

Thiel spun the tires pretty hard at the hit and lost a bunch of time. You can see from his mph that he did finally hook it up and run. Harrington had bigger problems in the other lane as he he bangs the blower and gets lots of smoke out the pipes before half track. The good news is we had no oil so the call is 'fire the next pair'!

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Left Lane: Bret Williamson Runs 5.792/245.72, Now #2
Right Lane: Mark Woznichak Runs 7.001/153.56, Now #8

'The Woz' has problems at the hit and winds up doing a bit of pedaling to get is seven flat. Nice looking hit for Williamson in the Team Eagle car. We appear to have some stuff on the track in Woznichak's lane. Hope we're not down long as it's getting darker and darker.

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Right Lane: Sean Bellemeur Runs 5.818/248.84, Now #3

No muss or fuss as Bellemeur lays down a run that's straight as a string.

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Left Lane: Ron August Jr Runs 5.774/254.14, Now #2
Right Lane: Dennis Taylor Runs 6.700/147.62, Now #9

Taylor rode the wall most of the way down on this pass and he was really tip toeing. Around half track things wern't getting any better and he clicked it early. August stayed right in the middle of his lane and just misses passing Webster for the top spot. Nice pass for the Div-7 team.

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Left Lane: Steve Gasparrelli Runs 9.104/152.68, Now #14
Right Lane: Clint Thompson Runs 5.633/253.61, Now #1

Gasparrelli chattered the tires hard at about 100ft and actually had smoke. He lifted and coasted across the line. Thompson goes to the top by almost a full tenth.

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Left Lane: Keeter Ray Runs 10.214/82.83, Now #16
Right Lane: Doug Gordon Runs 5.802/255.29, Now #5

Ray shook the tires really hard right off the line and had no choice about calling it off. Gordon had no problems on his hit.

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Left Lane: Sean O'Bannon Runs 5.649/257.73, Now #2
Right Lane: Brian Hough Runs 8.081/114.66, Now #16

O'Bannon just misses passing Thompson for the #1 seed. Good looking run for him but tire shake and a loose race car claimed Hough.

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Left Lane: Jay Payne Runs 5.850/210.37, Now #10
Right Lane: Frank Manzo Runs 5.585/259.56, Now #1

Hough's 8.08 is now the bump and if my notes are correct this is the final pair. No drama here as Manzo runs and he goes to the top. Any questions? Payne gets in but it cost him a burst panel and some parts. We go on to the long cars for their first hit.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink