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Fri, 12 Feb 2010, 02:24 PM

Competition Eliminator Qualifying Notes, Final Session

By David Gerard

POMONA, Calif. - Notes from final, round 3 qualifying in Competition Eliminator at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, 50th annual Kragen O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals presented by Valvoline listing lane, driver name, elapsed time, top speed this round, amount over/under index this round, position in order following run, best prior elapsed time, speed & over/under Index, and position in order prior to run:

Left Lane: Tom Brown Runs 8.279/158.46/-0.511, Now #18; F/ED Index: 8.79, Prior Best: 11.081/72.53/2.291, Was #29
Right Lane: Ed Sigmon Runs 8.543/154.44/-0.547, Now #15; C/SR Index: 9.09, Prior Best: 8.530/152.59/-0.560, Was #15

10:54 a.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 62 degrees, relative humidity 56 percent, barometer 29.05 inches, adjusted altitude 1,735 feet, track temperature 81 degrees.

Nice improvement for Brown , as he moves eleven spots up the ladder.

Sigmon is just a little slower than yesterday's best.

Left Lane: Art Hodges Runs 11.131/80.22/4.081, Now #7; A/PM Index: 7.05, Prior Best: 6.467/218.62/-0.583, Was #7
Right Lane: Brian Moscini Runs 7.417/182.30/-0.543, Now #16; C/AA Index: 7.96, Prior Best: 10.748/71.23/2.788, Was #30

Hodges' Stratus makes a big move at the top of low gear and he has to give it up early.

Moscini finds the tune up to move fourteen spots up the ladder on a much better pass.

Left Lane: Scott Hedlund Runs 7.791/173.94/-0.569, Now #9; A/SM Index: 8.36, Prior Best: 7.779/173.58/-0.581, Was #9
Right Lane: Adam Bowdish Runs 8.970/152.57/-0.570, Now #12; H/SM Index: 9.54, Prior Best: 9.011/149.75/-0.529, Was #18

Both cars leave wheels up and Bowdish gets the better of it with a six spot move up the ladder. Hedlund is just a little slower than his best.

Left Lane: Nicole Lyons Runs 7.538/177.39/0.388, Now #28; A/AA Index: 7.15, Prior Best: 7.096/192.30/-0.054, Was #28
Right Lane: Craig Johnson Runs 8.925/166.74/1.855, Now #30; AA/AM Index: 7.07, Prior Best: 8.125/172.04/1.055, Was #30

Lots of power on the line!

No joy though, as both cars have problems off the line.

Left Lane: Brian Fitzpatrick Runs 6.324/219.54/-0.676, Now #1; H/D Index: 7.00, Prior Best: 6.223/226.28/-0.777, Was #1
Right Lane: Steve Graham Runs 16.556/52.23/8.586, Now #31; C/A Index: 7.97, Prior Best: 17.544/49.21/9.574, Was #31

Looks like Fitzpatrick's problems last night weren't fatal. The slicks spin hard off the line and he slows from yesterday.

Graham's Stratus darts right, then left, and he clicks it off.

Left Lane: Ross Wilson Runs 8.155/164.07/-0.605, Now #7; C/SMA Index: 8.76, Prior Best: 8.179/164.01/-0.581, Was #8
Right Lane: Scott McClay Runs 7.316/179.21/-0.554, Now #14; C/ED Index: 7.87, Prior Best: 7.309/179.23/-0.561, Was #14

Two straight and true passes, but only Wilson improves by one spot.

McClay runs very close to his prior best of the weekend.

Left Lane: Gary Ross Runs 7.351/207.46/0.201, Now #27; AA/A Index: 7.15, Prior Best: 7.047/204.17/-0.103, Was #27
Right Lane: Gary Tackett Runs 8.385/164.01/-0.305, Now #25; B/SMA Index: 8.69, Prior Best: 8.377/161.07/-0.313, Was #25

Great 0.008 light for Tackett and neither car improves.

Left Lane: Tyler Hogan Runs 7.136/184.60/-0.434, Now #23; C/DA Index: 7.57, Prior Best: 7.825/125.13/0.255, Was #29
Right Lane: Peter Adams Runs 7.501/182.40/-0.469, Now #20; C/A Index: 7.97, Prior Best: 7.476/182.80/-0.494, Was #20

Hogan picks up a ton of ET and six spots on the ladder this time.

Adams had a lot of exhaust smoke out of the left bank on the line and doesn't improve.

Left Lane: John Edwards Runs 7.337/185.46/-0.623, Now #5; C/AA Index: 7.96, Prior Best: 7.324/184.65/-0.636, Was #5
Right Lane: Mike DePalma Runs 8.229/157.98/-0.591, Now #8; C/T Index: 8.82, Prior Best: 8.280/148.51/-0.540, Was #18

Edwards car moves hard towards the guard rail at the hit and he has to reel it back in. He still makes a good pass, but doesn't improve.

DePalma finds some more power today and runs close to sixty under and ten spots on the ladder.

Left Lane: Alan Ellis Runs 6.594/204.26/-0.626, Now #7; A/AP Index: 7.22, Prior Best: 6.659/202.18/-0.561, Was #16
Right Lane: Tom Mettler Runs 7.369/183.69/-0.601, Now #9; PST Index: 7.97, Prior Best: 7.393/183.00/-0.577, Was #11

A good move, with some shake, for Ellis and a much better run to run into the sixty under range and nine spots on the current ladder.

Mettler improves by about 0.003 and moves two spots up the ladder.

Left Lane: Dean Carter Runs 6.961/188.33/-0.569, Now #15; B/ND Index: 7.53, Prior Best: 7.049/186.36/-0.481, Was #21
Right Lane: Clint Neff Runs 7.985/148.33/-0.505, Now #3; K/A Index: 8.49, Prior Best: 7.840/166.35/-0.650, Was #3

Looks like a bunch of these guys like today's conditions!

Carter get well into the fifty under range and six spots up the ladder.

Clean pass for Neff, but no improvements.

Left Lane: Lou Ficco Jr. Runs 7.151/190.59/-0.729, Now #3; B/AP Index: 7.88, Prior Best: 7.253/187.73/-0.627, Was #6
Right Lane: Randy Jones Runs 8.146/164.91/-0.414, Now #22; A/SMA Index: 8.56, Prior Best: 8.088/166.44/-0.472, Was #22

Two good lights and Ficco gets the best of it, moving up to the current #3 spot.

Jones stays #22 for now.

Left Lane: J.D. Zink Runs 7.103/191.54/-0.317, Now #24; A/ND Index: 7.42, Prior Best: 7.039/187.57/-0.381, Was #24
Right Lane: Steve Holloway Runs 7.028/195.93/-0.592, Now #10; B/AA Index: 7.62, Prior Best: 7.052/196.36/-0.568, Was #16

I'm told that J.D. Zink was here for the first WinterNationals!

Whoa! That hurt! Big time wheel shake off the line for him and he has to pump it.

Holloway joins the "Up the Ladder" club and finds six spots with an almost sixty under pass.

Left Lane: Doug Lambeck Runs 8.415/159.40/-0.555, Now #19; D/SMA Index: 8.97, Prior Best: 8.724/128.52/-0.246, Was #27
Right Lane: Justin Lamb Runs 8.776/137.86/-0.554, Now #5; G/SMA Index: 9.33, Prior Best: 8.693/153.06/-0.637, Was #5

Lamb slows and Lambeck doesn't. The Pontiac tunes up to eight spots on the ladder.

Left Lane: Dan Fletcher Runs 7.694/175.43/-0.646, Now #5; B/EA Index: 8.34, Prior Best: 7.763/0.00/-0.577, Was #14

Fletcher takes a single to wrap the final qualifying round of Comp.

He saves his best for last and moves well into the sixty under range and nine spots up the ladder.

Busy round with lots of improvements.

11:16 a.m. No bump spot and Fitzpatrick keeps the #1 spot with a -0.777 under his index.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink