Sun, 19 Jun 2011, 07:42 PM Funny Car Round 3 Eliminations

By Rick Green

BRISTOL, Tenn. - Results of round 3 eliminations in Funny Car at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, 11th annual Ford NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals presented by Tri-Cities Area Ford Dealers:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   71 Cruz Pedregon                           4 Jack Beckman                 
E3                         No Time           ****WINNER****  0.120  4.116 308.78
 Prior rounds:
E2    (B Tasca III ) 0.047  4.110 301.47      (M Troxel    ) 0.048  4.144 311.85
E1    (J Force     ) 0.063  4.103 311.56      (J Head      ) 0.067  4.157 308.57
 Qualified:             #9  4.116 307.51                        #4  4.087 311.70

Weather conditions: air temperature 77 degrees, relative humidity 64 percent, barometer 28.28 inches, adjusted altitude 4,012 feet, track temperature 96 degrees.

Pedregon's car comes into the lanes late as the team is still working on the car after the big fire in the earlier round. They can't get the car to fire, so Beckman will get the freebie. Beckman launched hard and was straight down the groove with a great pass. Jack Beckman's incremental times: 60ft-0.906 sec., 330ft-2.333, 660ft-3.319/261.72 mph.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  170 Jeff Arend                              8 Robert Hight                 
E3                   0.070  4.151 305.91     ****WINNER****  0.063  4.047 316.45
 Prior rounds:
E2    (M Hagan     ) 0.036  4.653 278.52      (M Neff      ) 0.084  4.062 311.13
E1    (J Gray      ) 0.079  4.153 305.91      (R Capps     ) 0.060  4.132 312.28
 Qualified:            #10  4.119 302.28                        #6  4.090 311.20

Hight is 9 - 1 against Arend in prior events. Hight with the starting line advantage and then blasted on through the 1000 feet for the win with the quickest pass of the weekend in the class. Hight with the fastest pass in funny in the 1000-foot era. Arend with a great pass in the losing effort. Robert Hight's incremental times: 60ft-0.900 sec., 330ft-2.316, 660ft-3.272/269.89 mph.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink