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Sat, 18 Sep 2010, 11:52 AM

Pro Modified Qualifying Notes, Final Session

By Larry Sullivan

CONCORD, N.C. - Notes from final, round 3 qualifying in Pro Modified 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: Chip King Runs 7.022/140.08, Now #26; Best prior run: 6.733/157.71, Was #26
Right Lane: Pat Musi Runs 6.552/227.46, Now #24; Best prior run: 6.316/226.43, Was #24

11:04 a.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 79 degrees, relative humidity 49 percent, barometer 29.51 inches, adjusted altitude 2,484 feet, track temperature 102 degrees.

King was off the throttle before half track, Musi's car made a couple of big moves in the first 100 feet and both drivers are through for the weekend.

Left Lane: Ike Maier Runs 8.326/113.86, Now #25; Best prior run: 6.319/225.22, Was #25

Massive tire shake ends Maier's weekend.

Left Lane: Andrew Parise Runs 6.944/150.08, Now #22; Best prior run: 6.221/232.91, Was #22
Right Lane: Dina Parise Runs 24.457/26.88, Now #21; Best prior run: 6.153/232.27, Was #21

The Parise family took their last shot, she shook immediately, he was off the throttle well before the stripe.

Left Lane: Chuck Cheeseman Runs 6.146/233.32, Now #20; Best prior run: 6.139/236.13, Was #20
Right Lane: Mike Janis Runs 5.950/243.99, Now #5; Best prior run: 6.083/240.04, Was #17

For the record, Joe Baker is on the bump spot at 6.070. So far, nobody has come close, Musi the only one coming close to making a full pass.

Both drivers here made full runs, Cheeseman failed to improve, but Janis made a nice-looking run to bump Baker and get well into the top half of the field.

Left Lane: Ed Hoover Runs 5.969/241.45, Now #8; Best prior run: 6.125/238.17, Was #19

Janis put Kenny Lang on the bump spot at 6.065. Hoover made his best run of the weekend to bump Lang. Now Dennis Radford is on the bump spot at 6.056.

Left Lane: Billy Harper Runs 15.452/53.07, Now #19; Best prior run: 6.092/233.24, Was #19
Right Lane: Kenny Lang Runs 13.968/78.52, Now #17; Best prior run: 6.065/237.05, Was #17

Harper and Lang have only been down the track once each this weekend,Lang was just bumped from the field.

This was ugly in both lanes, both cars with instant, massive tire shake.

Left Lane: Dennis Radford Runs 6.130/232.51, Now #16; Best prior run: 6.056/235.89, Was #16
Right Lane: Mike Knowles Runs 6.629/189.68, Now #15; Best prior run: 6.049/239.57, Was #15

Radford is safe, the remaining cars are already in the field and it looks like Joe Baker won't make a run in this final session. However, meeting the #1 qualifier in round one usually isn't a good thing.

Knowles shook immediately, pedaled, shook again, then gathered it up and completed the run. Radford didn't have any obvious problems, but he left a lot on the table in the first 330 feet.

Left Lane: Roger Burgess Runs 5.922/246.66, Now #2; Best prior run: 6.007/244.60, Was #12
Right Lane: Raymond Commisso Runs 6.072/241.50, Now #14; Best prior run: 6.045/241.20, Was #14

Nice pass by Burgess to move way up the ladder. He's the quickest in the "non-Personett" class.

Left Lane: Troy Coughlin Runs 5.973/238.26, Now #10; Best prior run: 5.980/236.46, Was #11
Right Lane: Tommy Gray Runs 6.020/242.10, Now #13; Best prior run: 6.037/240.12, Was #13

Coughlin's car made a big wiggle in the middle of the run, but he drove through it nicely to move up a rung on the ladder.

Left Lane: Danny Rowe Runs 10.889/94.71, Now #11; Best prior run: 5.980/244.34, Was #11
Right Lane: Melanie Troxel Runs 8.797/105.30, Now #12; Best prior run: 5.987/246.57, Was #12

Shake, both lanes.

Left Lane: Rickie Smith Runs 6.065/199.46, Now #8; Best prior run: 5.959/238.17, Was #8
Right Lane: Von Smith Runs 5.894/245.67, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.942/244.52, Was #4

Nice pass by Von Smith to join Brad Personett in the eighties. Rickie Smith made a pretty good run, left some ET on the table somewhere along the way.

Left Lane: Scott Ray Runs 5.971/241.50, Now #7; Best prior run: 5.959/240.34, Was #7
Right Lane: Rick Stivers Runs 5.925/241.50, Now #4; Best prior run: 5.941/241.97, Was #4

Two nice passes here, with identical speeds.

Left Lane: Jay Payne Runs 14.313/69.07, Now #5; Best prior run: 5.948/244.16, Was #5
Right Lane: Brad Personett Runs 7.345/141.53, Now #1; Best prior run: 5.843/249.26, Was #1

Last pair. It's not often Payne lines up beside a car that is a tenth quicker than his.

Payne's car shook hard and he lifted. personett's car made a couple of hard moves early in the run, first toward the centerline, then back toward the groove and he backed off the throttle.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink