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Fri, 13 Nov 2009, 08:00 PM

Top Alcohol Dragster Qualifying Notes, Final Session

By David Gerard

POMONA, Calif. - Notes from final, round 3 qualifying in Top Alcohol Dragster at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, 45th annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals 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:

Right Lane: Brooks Brown Runs 11.171/71.70, Now #23; Best prior run: 10.473/83.72, Was #23

4:10 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 68 degrees, relative humidity 38 percent, barometer 28.68 inches, adjusted altitude 2,453 feet, track temperature 86 degrees.

Joey Severance is on the bump spot at 5.398.

Brown continues to struggle and stays #23.

Left Lane: Randy Eakins Runs 5.506/247.70, Now #19; Best prior run: 5.445/256.16, Was #19
Right Lane: Darryl Hitchman Runs 5.576/261.88, Now #21; Best prior run: 5.743/262.08, Was #22

Eakins starts to drop cylinders first, with Hitchman right behind him. Looked like a lot less than sixteen cylinders firing in the lights.

These two go home early.

Left Lane: Joey Severance Runs 5.337/265.59, Now #9; Best prior run: 5.398/265.22, Was #16
Right Lane: Art Trautman Runs 5.864/237.67, Now #22; Best prior run: 5.625/231.64, Was #22

Trautman's fueler struggles to do the burnout and has the idle way too high trying to back up. He has cylinders out at the hit and can't improve.

Severance pulls himself off the bump spot to just miss the top half of the field. Looks like a body panel or something blew off the car in the lights.

Joey Severance's incremental times: 60ft-0.909 sec., 330ft-2.364, 660ft-3.513/215.37 mph, 1,000ft-4.499.

Left Lane: Shawn Cowie Runs 5.576/235.72, Now #15; Best prior run: 5.376/267.00, Was #15
Right Lane: Justin Davis Runs 5.420/263.62, Now #17; Best prior run: 5.467/263.05, Was #20

Dale Carlson is on the bump spot at 5.378.

Once again no improvements on full pulls. The incrementals show the problem.

Shawn Cowie's incremental times: 60ft-0.950 sec., 330ft-2.468, 660ft-3.659/206.83 mph, 1,000ft-4.679.
Justin Davis' incremental times: 60ft-0.951 sec., 330ft-2.405, 660ft-3.567/212.13 mph, 1,000ft-4.568.

Left Lane: Jim Whiteley Runs 5.335/270.37, Now #9; Best prior run: 5.368/268.49, Was #14
Right Lane: Derek Flynn Runs 5.366/260.01, Now #15; Best prior run: 5.431/251.67, Was #19

Two nice passes and Whiteley finds some more power to get well into the field for now. Flynn slides into sixteen car field for now with a new career best ET and MPH. Good job!

Jim Whiteley's incremental times: 60ft-0.941 sec., 330ft-2.393, 660ft-3.529/218.19 mph, 1,000ft-4.504.
Derek Flynn's incremental times: 60ft-0.939 sec., 330ft-2.420, 660ft-3.545/222.18 mph, 1,000ft-4.513.

Left Lane: Michael Manners Runs 5.355/269.19, Now #13; Best prior run: 5.361/267.11, Was #14
Right Lane: Doug Hegge Runs 5.441/261.07, Now #19; Best prior run: 5.428/263.72, Was #19

Shawn Cowie is on the bump spot at 5.376 and that moves the bar even further for the quickest TAD field.

Two more full pull, but only Manners can improve, just moving up one spot.

Hegge slows a little from yesterday's best.

Michael Manners' incremental times: 60ft-0.969 sec., 330ft-2.482, 660ft-3.582/227.77 mph, 1,000ft-4.529.
Doug Hegge's incremental times: 60ft-0.944 sec., 330ft-2.458, 660ft-3.605/221.09 mph, 1,000ft-4.590.

Right Lane: Dale Carlson Runs 5.407/262.49, Now #17; Best prior run: 5.378/264.34, Was #17

A clean pass, but no improvement for Carlson. He doesn't make the field.

Left Lane: Brandon Johnson Runs 5.351/271.19, Now #11; Best prior run: 5.344/268.44, Was #11
Right Lane: Chris Demke Runs 5.409/265.33, Now #12; Best prior run: 5.346/265.43, Was #12

Clean passes a pair, but no improvements.

Brandon Johnson's incremental times: 60ft-0.949 sec., 330ft-2.453, 660ft-3.579/223.25 mph, 1,000ft-4.528.
Chris Demke's incremental times: 60ft-0.920 sec., 330ft-2.389, 660ft-3.558/211.69 mph, 1,000ft-4.559.

Left Lane: Mark Niver Runs 5.688/193.96, Now #8; Best prior run: 5.322/265.12, Was #8
Right Lane: Courtney Force Runs 5.332/269.03, Now #6; Best prior run: 5.306/263.72, Was #6

Niver takes the long way down, as the Billet Bullet steadily pulls towards the wall. He gently pulls it back into the groove way down track. He slows.

Force makes a clean pass to run close to her prior best. Three "Thirty" passes in a row!

Mark Niver's incremental times: 60ft-0.941 sec., 330ft-2.420, 660ft-3.554/221.96 mph, 1,000ft-4.606.
Courtney Force's incremental times: 60ft-0.933 sec., 330ft-2.418, 660ft-3.545/221.82 mph, 1,000ft-4.503.

Left Lane: Brittany Force Runs 7.691/130.02, Now #7; Best prior run: 5.311/270.75, Was #7
Right Lane: Duane Shields Runs 5.316/269.29, Now #5; Best prior run: 5.306/271.95, Was #5

Force has a better sixty foot time, but the engine isn't happy and the cars slows and coasts on down the track.

Nice pass for Shields, but the fueler slows a little.

Duane Shields' incremental times: 60ft-0.939 sec., 330ft-2.428, 660ft-3.548/225.11 mph, 1,000ft-4.494.

Left Lane: Hillary Will Runs 5.268/273.05, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.300/271.35, Was #4
Right Lane: Bill Reichert Runs 10.526/81.20, Now #4; Best prior run: 5.289/267.43, Was #3

Reichert fires and falls back.

Will makes a clean pass and move up two spots on the ladder into the current #2 spot. Nice run.

Hillary Will's incremental times: 60ft-0.943 sec., 330ft-2.407, 660ft-3.513/223.43 mph, 1,000ft-4.453.

Right Lane: Monroe Guest Runs 5.193/274.00, Now #1; Best prior run: 5.281/278.46, Was #3

Ahten decides to sit out this session, so Guest will make a single run to finish out qualifying.

Ouch! Everybody take a step back! Guest saves the best for last and takes the Tigerflow Monden fueler from #3 to #1 in a great looking high teen pass.

Monroe Guest's incremental times: 60ft-0.920 sec., 330ft-2.367, 660ft-3.452/231.08 mph, 1,000ft-4.382.

4:47 p.m. Shawn Cowie is on the bump spot at 5.376.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink