Sun, 19 Sep 2010, 05:08 PM Funny Car Round 3 Eliminations

By Rick Green

CONCORD, N.C. - Results of round 3 eliminations in Funny Car at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, Third annual O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    8 Bob Tasca III                           5 Jack Beckman                 
E3                   0.100  4.949 160.86     ****WINNER****  0.081  4.199 301.13
 Prior rounds:
E2    (A Force Hood) 0.076  4.483 250.78      (P Lee       ) 0.092  4.239 292.58
E1    (B Bode      ) 0.068  4.221 301.40      (R Capps     ) 0.073  4.232 302.01
 Qualified:             #3  4.109 304.39                        #7  4.123 305.36

Weather conditions: air temperature 91 degrees, relative humidity 36 percent, barometer 29.36 inches, adjusted altitude 3,367 feet, track temperature 126 degrees.

Beckman is out of the gate first and never trails as he is straight down the groove for the win. Tasca III's car just ran out of steam on the top end and was mixing up cylinders...

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   71 Cruz Pedregon                         170 Jeff Arend                   
E3   ****WINNER****  0.089  4.181 300.66                     0.093  8.356  81.68
 Prior rounds:
E2    (T Pedregon  ) 0.058  4.392 268.87      (M Hagan     ) 0.094  4.205 302.35
E1    (J Smith     ) 0.078  4.161 298.27      (J Head      ) 0.073  4.180 304.67
 Qualified:             #1  4.078 303.57                        #4  4.115 306.95

Pedregon is 8 - 3 against Arend in prior events. Pedregon with the slight starting line advantage and never trailed as he blast on down with the quickest pass of the round and he will have lane choice over Beckman in the final. Cruz Pedregon's incremental times: 60ft-0.947 sec., 330ft-2.370, 660ft-3.369/258.17 mph. Arend was up in smoke as soon as he hit the throttle.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink