Sun, 5 Sep 2010, 08:10 PM Top Alcohol Dragster Round 1 Eliminations

By Dan Bennett

CLERMONT, Ind. - Results of round 1 eliminations in Top Alcohol Dragster at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, 56th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    3 Duane Shields                          33 Marty Thacker                
E1                   0.042  5.377 265.22     ****WINNER****  0.029  5.377 265.48
 Qualified:             #7  5.310 265.69                       #10  5.342 268.28

7:41 p.m. Shields is competing in his 9th Indy race. This is the seventh time he's qualified in the top half of the field.

Hey, it's Indy, and nowhere else do you get to see races like this. How about identical times to the thousandth? Thacker's excellent light saved the day for him. Shields was strong down low but Thacker owned the back half.

Duane Shields' incremental times: 60ft-0.943 sec., 330ft-2.441, 660ft-3.579/220.15 mph, 1,000ft-4.541.
Marty Thacker's incremental times: 60ft-0.942 sec., 330ft-2.388, 660ft-3.540/214.01 mph, 1,000ft-4.533.

Marty Thacker's MOV: 0.0131 seconds (approximately 5 feet).

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    4 Shawn Cowie                           464 Buddy Domingue               
E1   ****WINNER****  0.092  5.334 265.17                     0.038  5.457 246.89
 Qualified:             #4  5.302 262.59                       #13  5.372 245.94

Buddy Domingue was low qualifier here in 1982.

Other than the starting line, this one was Cowie all the way.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    6 Ken Perry                             185 Mike Kosky                   
E1                  -0.095  5.341 264.08     ****WINNER****  0.028  5.410 255.24
 Qualified:             #8  5.334 264.18                        #9  5.340 265.27

Kosky first raced here in 1981 and this is his 23rd Indy. He's been in two national events this year and won both of them.

These two were separated by just .006 in qualifying so this should prove to be a nailbiter.

Perry is way red and Kosky will return. And, if you notice, they were .006 apart this times also.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    2 Jim Whiteley                         7051 Darren Nicholson             
E1                   0.053  5.567 251.39     ****WINNER****  0.067  5.320 263.15
 Qualified:             #6  5.309 266.37                       #11  5.352 262.08

Nicholson won here in 1998 and was runner up in 1999.

Whitely comes into this race in the fourth position in points.

Nicholson runs quicker than his qualified time and Whitely slows down, probably due to some shake.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    9 Michael Manners                       596 Randy Meyer                  
E1                   0.045 19.423  50.15     ****WINNER****  0.053  5.355 261.02
 Qualified:            #12  5.369 269.51                        #5  5.305 261.98

Manners goes up in smoke right off the line. Meyer will return to face Cowie and will have lane choice.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  371 Dave Heitzman                         489 Chase Copeland               
E1                   0.040  5.543 254.62     ****WINNER****  0.044  5.269 276.63
 Qualified:            #14  5.373 261.22                        #3  5.300 275.17

Heitzman's son Devin is his crew chief and the car is owned by Dennis Drath. Copeland's car spit out the right bank on a few pulses, but the car still just laid back its ears and ran a great number. That's a career best speed for Copeland and his quickest pass of the weekend. He'll have lane choice over Nicholson in round 2.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   47 Brandon Pierce                          1 Bill Reichert                
E1                   0.052  5.617 255.19     ****WINNER****  0.028  5.302 265.43
 Qualified:            #15  5.378 268.12                        #2  5.297 267.27

This is Reichert's 19th Indy. His #2 spot here this year is best start ever at this track. He won here in 2006 and 2008. Reichert dominated from one end to the other. That's the second quickest pass of the session and will give him lane choice over Thacker by .07.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   24 Robin Samsel                            7 Chris Demke                  
E1                   0.110  5.451 258.67     ****WINNER****  0.104  5.308 268.76
 Qualified:            #16  5.429 261.12                        #1  5.256 271.52

This is Demke's fifth #1 start, and all of them have been this year. He dominates this pair and will face Kosky next time up and holds lane choice by over a tenth of a second.

That's it for round one.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink