Sun, 7 Sep 2003, 05:11 PM Funny Car Round 3 Eliminations

By Rick Green

CLERMONT, Ind. - Results of round 3 eliminations in Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 49th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   10 Johnny Gray                             4 Gary Densham
E3   ****WINNER****  0.056  4.891 312.13                     0.096  5.798 168.03
 Prior rounds:
E2    (J Force     ) 0.070  4.945 309.91      (T Johnson Jr) 0.071  5.734 180.14
E1    (P Burkart Jr) 0.054  4.914 304.39      (B Bode      ) 0.090  4.812 321.58
 Qualified:             #9  4.821 321.27                        #4  4.786 320.97

Current weather conditions: 78 degrees, 37 percent relative humidity, the barometer 30.07 inches, with a track temperature of 112 degrees.

Gray was out of the gate first and never looked back as he ran his best pass of the day to take the win. Densham started mixing up the cylinders around half track and then the engine went away.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    9 Dean Skuza                            347 Tim Wilkerson
E3                   0.075  5.095 244.83     ****WINNER****  0.070  4.864 318.84
 Prior rounds:
E2    (C Pedregon  ) 0.101  4.903 302.62      (S Cannon    ) 0.088  4.994 305.15
E1    (T Pedregon  ) 0.082  4.941 261.72      (G Scelzi    ) 0.076  4.829 321.27
 Qualified:             #6  4.805 311.41                       #15  4.860 319.52

They leave the line together and Skuza dropped a cylinder right off the starting line.

Tim Wilkerson's incremental margins: 60ft(0.035), 330 ft(0.071), 660ft(0.073), 1,000ft(0.038). MOV: 0.2366 seconds (approximately 85 feet).

Wilkerson will have lane choice in the final.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink