Sun, 23 Aug 2009, 06:00 PM Funny Car Round 3 Eliminations

By Jim Samuel

MOHNTON, Pa. - Results of round 3 eliminations in Funny Car at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, 25th annual Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
 1777 Bob Tasca III                           7 John Force                   
E3   ****WINNER****  0.060  6.783 102.00                    -0.020  4.275 279.73
 Prior rounds:
E2    (R Hight     ) 0.078  4.258 287.41      (J Arend     ) 0.097  4.291 287.11
E1    (R Capps     ) 0.076  4.261 281.48      (M Hagan     ) 0.049  4.273 274.72
 Qualified:             #5  4.138 299.26                        #8  4.159 299.00

5:32 p.m. - Weather conditions: air temperature 86 degrees, relative humidity 55 percent, barometer 29.31 inches, adjusted altitude 3,380 feet, track temperature 108 degrees.

Force has won three of the five prior races these two have had. They are 1 - 1 in third round competition. A red light by Force gave the win to Tasca, who needed the break because he shook the tires at for the first couple hundred feet and had to get off the throttle at 330 feet. He got back on it and damaged the car, leaving oil on the track. We'll be down This was only the 21st red light start in his career. His last red light loss came in the final round here in 2007, when he lost to Tony Pedregon.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    9 Mike Neff                               5 Tony Pedregon                
E3   ****WINNER****  0.111  4.189 280.37                     0.096  5.329 149.10
 Prior rounds:
E2    (J Toliver   ) 0.085  4.239 275.39      (D Worsham   ) 0.109  4.347 267.22
E1    (T Wilkerson ) 0.062  4.242 286.56      (J Schriefer ) 0.145  4.221 253.04
 Qualified:             #6  4.145 299.60                        #2  4.133 299.53

Racing resumed after a 20-minute delay to clean up after Tasca's car. Pedregon is 5 - 2 against Neff in prior events, nd these two have never met in the third round before this.

Pedregon had the quicker start but when he got to 330 feet, the car shook the rear tires hard and he had to click it off. Neff had a clean run going until he got to the end of the track, when his car skated around a little. Neff got the win and will have lane choice over Tasca in the next round.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink