Fri, 17 Sep 2010, 09:20 PM Top Fuel Qualifying Notes, Session #2 |
By Larry Sullivan |
CONCORD, N.C. - Notes from round 2 qualifying in Top Fuel at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, Third annual O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals 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: Antron Brown Runs 3.832/315.93, Now #1; Best prior run: 6.664/98.63, Was #19
8:39 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 85 degrees, relative humidity 53 percent, barometer 29.33 inches, adjusted altitude 3,177 feet, track temperature 99 degrees.
Larry Dixon is on the bump spot at 4.695.
Brown went from the bottom of the
list all the way to #1 with top speed of the event (so far). Pretty run, no visible problems at all.
Left Lane: Fred Farndon Runs 5.215/136.51, Now #15; Best prior run: 6.366/106.72, Was #19
Right Lane: Morgan Lucas Runs 6.540/92.21, Now #19; Best prior run: 6.362/88.32, Was #18
Farndon's first national event was the '63 U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis. Lucas was born 21 years later.
Both runs
looked much the same, a good launch, followed by a loss of traction and one attempt to pedal through it before shutting off. Lucas
had his problems a little earlier in his run than did Farndon.
Left Lane: Terry McMillen Runs 11.285/82.36, Now #18; Best prior run: 6.333/0.00, Was #18
Right Lane: Doug Foley Runs 5.751/116.94, Now #17; Best prior run: 5.826/114.99, Was #17
McMillen went about a foot, then lost traction. Foley got a bit further, maybe 200 feet, then suffered the same fate.
Left Lane: Larry Dixon Runs 3.846/315.93, Now #2; Best prior run: 4.695/158.97, Was #13
Right Lane: Doug Kalitta Runs 3.879/316.08, Now #4; Best prior run: 5.262/119.21, Was #16
Finally a side-by-side pair, Dixon second by a hundredths and Kalitta third, with top speed of the event.
Larry
Dixon's incremental times: 60ft-0.842 sec., 330ft-2.155, 660ft-3.076/275.62 mph.
Doug Kalitta's incremental times: 60ft-0.876
sec., 330ft-2.189, 660ft-3.107/275.90 mph.
Left Lane: Pat Dakin Runs 7.320/78.04, Now #13; Best prior run: 4.171/253.14, Was #12
Right Lane: Cory McClenathan Runs 3.831/321.12, Now #1; Best prior run: 4.841/149.40, Was #15
That pair of good runs put Dakin on the bump spot at 4.171. Cory Mac has done well here in the short history of this track, so it appeared to be a sure bet that he would get into the top part of the field on this run.
Dakin lost traction in the
first 100 feet, but McClenathan showed why he has done so well here, going to #1 with top speed of the meet. The run looked to be
almost perfect...Cory McClenathan's incremental times: 60ft-0.839 sec., 330ft-2.157, 660ft-3.072/278.58 mph.
Left Lane: Brandon Bernstein Runs 3.839/317.34, Now #3; Best prior run: 4.157/282.01, Was #12
Right Lane: Shawn Langdon Runs 7.369/58.73, Now #15; Best prior run: 4.655/150.93, Was #15
Cory Mac's run put Bernstein on the bump spot. langdon lost traction, pedaled, and may have popped the burst panel. He'll have to start over tomorrow. Bernstein made a very nice run to slide into the #3 spot: Brandon Bernstein's incremental times: 60ft-0.845 sec., 330ft-2.160, 660ft-3.074/277.60 mph.
That puts Troy Buff on the bump spot at 4.128.
Left Lane: T.J. Zizzo Runs 3.867/308.21, Now #6; Best prior run: 4.055/263.00, Was #11
Right Lane: Doug Herbert Runs 4.814/157.12, Now #14; Best prior run: 4.474/237.17, Was #14
Herbert was on and off the throttle a couple times, to no avail. Zizzo made a nice run to move well away from the bump spot.
Left Lane: Steve Torrence Runs 5.336/128.19, Now #10; Best prior run: 3.954/305.08, Was #10
Troy Buff is on the bump spot and should be in the right lane, but he is safe since the remaining cars are already qualified, so his team elected to skip the "bragging rights" night session.
Torrence's car sounded like he double-pumped the
throttle on the launch and he had to pedal again trying to regain traction, then gave it up.
Left Lane: Rod Fuller Runs 6.016/102.21, Now #8; Best prior run: 3.893/311.49, Was #8
Right Lane: David Grubnic Runs 4.039/246.39, Now #11; Best prior run: 3.996/264.80, Was #11
Fuller lost traction about half way down the track and shut it off. Grubnic went up in flames at about the same spot, trailing a fireball through the lights. It might have been a head gasket, but it looked like too big a fireball for that. However, from the lack of cleanup activity, it looks like it did not leave any "stuff" on the track.
Left Lane: Tony Schumacher Runs 5.279/129.92, Now #5; Best prior run: 3.866/308.64, Was #5
Right Lane: Bob Vandergriff Runs 5.394/123.67, Now #9; Best prior run: 3.954/311.27, Was #9
Oh-for-two, both cars trying to rotate the Earth and failing.
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