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Sat, 5 Sep 2009, 12:08 PM

Top Alcohol Dragster Qualifying Notes, Session #2

By Dan Bennett

CLERMONT, Ind. - Notes from round 2 qualifying in Top Alcohol Dragster at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, 55th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil listing lane, driver name, elapsed time/top speed this round, position in order following run, best prior elapsed time/speed, and position in order prior to run:

Left Lane: Kate Harker Runs 5.318/270.70, Now #2; Best prior run: 16.761/57.08, Was #26

Very nice pass for Harker starts the session.

Left Lane: Michael Manners Runs 5.489/265.06, Now #12; Best prior run: 15.947/53.56, Was #26
Right Lane: Tim Bowgren Runs 5.466/254.66, Now #11; No Prior Run

Brandon Booher is currently on the bump spot at 5.543.

The track is in excellent condition and with the overcast sky, hopefully it will stay that way.

Both cars get in for the time being.

Left Lane: Brittany Force Runs 5.382/263.87, Now #6; Best prior run: 12.490/63.80, Was #27
Right Lane: Courtney Force Runs 5.402/265.06, Now #9; Best prior run: 5.809/253.28, Was #23

It's all-Force, all the time as we have a family race for this pair. Courtney lets Brittany go first and follows here in doing very smooth, effective burnouts. To return the favor, Brittany waits as Courtney lights the top bulb. The sisters split bragging rights as Courtney owns the tree at .094 to .129 reaction time, but Brittany has the better ET. Both slot into the top half.

Left Lane: Dave Weber Runs 5.615/257.97, Now #22; Best prior run: 7.532/112.06, Was #27
Right Lane: Rich McPhillips Runs 5.413/256.60, Now #11; Best prior run: 5.673/249.44, Was #24

Noah Condo is now on the bump spot at 5.501. Weber picks up a couple of seconds but doesn't make the field yet. Veteran McPhillips gets in but probably won't stay.

Left Lane: Brian Mans Runs 8.909/95.07, Now #27; Best prior run: 6.712/146.59, Was #27
Right Lane: Diana Harker Runs 13.341/64.01, Now #24; Best prior run: 5.626/240.34, Was #24

Two blown cars side by side, and the sound is wonderful as they make their burnouts. Instead of the deep muttering of the injected fuel cars, these are singing high C.

Mans was on a very stout pass until the front end rose and rose and rose...At about 10 feet in the air he brings it back down to earth. Harker shakes in a major way before she passed the tree.

Left Lane: Art Trautman Runs 6.061/211.43, Now #26; Best prior run: 6.157/182.23, Was #26
Right Lane: Brandon Booher Runs 9.194/93.86, Now #21; Best prior run: 5.543/253.95, Was #21

Darryl Hitchman is currently on the bump spot at 5.498.

Booher scares everybody when the car makes a nasty move to the wall. It slaps pretty hard and gets up on two wheels. Brandon does a great job of getting all four back on the ground and the car back under control. We're relieved to see the chutes come out before the finish line as it was a very hard hit.

He's out of the car and the flatbed wrecker shows up but the ambulance isn't needed, good news indeed. We're down for a few in order to get the car off the track.

11:38 a.m.

Left Lane: Tommy Johnson Jr. Runs 5.494/249.58, Now #16; Best prior run: 5.630/242.36, Was #25
Right Lane: Jared Dreher Runs 5.543/255.77, Now #20; Best prior run: 5.520/256.89, Was #19

11:42 a.m. and we're back in business.

Neither car is in the show at this point.

TJ squeaks in for a few minutes. There are still a lot of fast cars waiting to run.

Left Lane: Doug Hegge Runs 5.545/258.67, Now #23; Best prior run: 5.616/252.66, Was #24
Right Lane: Noah Condo Runs 5.394/264.91, Now #8; Best prior run: 5.501/268.33, Was #18

Nice pass for Condo, right on the edge. The tires started shaking at the top of low gear but the gear change settled them down. He goes to the top half of the order.

That bumps TJ and Michael Manners is now on the bump spot at 5.489.

Left Lane: Malcolm Wahle Runs 13.590/69.22, Now #21; Best prior run: 5.520/244.47, Was #21
Right Lane: Robin Samsel Runs 5.411/257.63, Now #12; Best prior run: 5.463/259.41, Was #14

Wahle goes way down the track on his burnout but backs up like a 60's match racer. Yes, that's a compliment.

However, when the tree comes down he pretty much does another burnout as the car is up in smoke at the first foot. Samsel picks up .05 and 2 places in the order.

Left Lane: Marty Thacker Runs 5.362/268.22, Now #5; Best prior run: 5.511/264.03, Was #19
Right Lane: Dave Hirata Runs 5.466/261.52, Now #10; Best prior run: 5.401/262.08, Was #9

Both cars make straight, smooth runs but Thacker makes the most of his and gets way into the top half.

That drops Hirata one notch.

Left Lane: Darryl Hitchman Runs 5.548/251.49, Now #19; Best prior run: 5.498/266.85, Was #19
Right Lane: Chris Demke Runs 6.181/161.87, Now #8; Best prior run: 5.384/263.20, Was #8

Tim Bowgren is on the bump spot at 5.466.

Demke runs into problems at the 500 foot area when the right bank started blasting smoke. Hitchman doesn't improve.

Left Lane: Darren Nicholson Runs 5.714/246.12, Now #15; Best prior run: 5.424/260.76, Was #15
Right Lane: Ken Perry Runs 5.357/264.70, Now #5; Best prior run: 5.369/263.05, Was #6

Left Lane: Duane Shields Runs 5.450/261.62, Now #12; Best prior run: 5.411/264.60, Was #12
Right Lane: Jim Whiteley Runs 5.268/271.08, Now #1; Best prior run: 5.336/267.75, Was #4

Whitely runs the seventh quickest pass ever for a blown car. That matches nicely with another of his runs that was sixth quickest. He also takes top MPH for this weekend. All in all, a superb pass that serves notice to the guy coming up in the next pair.

Left Lane: Bill Reichert Runs 5.300/267.37, Now #3; Best prior run: 5.325/264.23, Was #4
Right Lane: Mike Lewis Runs 5.376/261.83, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.276/262.08, Was #2

Mike Lewis has pretty much done it all in drag racing, but Whitely is trying to take the #1 spot away from him. Though it's a nice pass, it's no answer to Whitely. That was a great session and we have a lot more to come.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink