Sun, 15 Jun 2003, 04:33 PM Funny Car Round 3 Eliminations

By Rick Green

HEBRON, Ohio - Results of round 3 eliminations in Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 39th annual Pontiac Excitement Nationals presented by Summit Racing:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   28 Ron Capps                               1 John Force
E3                   0.028  5.147 284.03     ****WINNER****  0.058  4.961 296.57
 Prior rounds:
E2    (G Scelzi    ) 0.025  5.024 294.75      (W Bazemore  ) 0.061  4.980 286.13
E1    (A Karp      ) 0.075  4.849 314.24      (B Gilbertson) 0.071  4.817 319.75
 Qualified:             #3  4.853 311.05                        #2  4.791 323.66

Current weather conditions: 79 degrees, 51 percent relative humidity, the barometer 30.12 inches, with a track temperature of 111 degrees.

Capps with a big starting line advantage and then had just a little puff of tire smoke around half track. Force was dropping cylinders right before the finish line.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   73 Frank Pedregon                          2 Tony Pedregon
E3                   0.066  5.148 258.42     ****WINNER****  0.060  4.995 297.55
 Prior rounds:
E2    (D Worsham   ) 0.068  5.114 241.41      (G Densham   ) 0.103  4.898 298.07
E1    (T Johnson Jr) 0.100  4.934 306.67      (D Creasy Jr ) 0.094  4.992 293.09
 Qualified:            #13  4.943 309.77                        #1  4.780 316.67

Tony with a slight starting line advantage and never looked back to take the win, but will give up lane choice to the boss in the final. Frank started to haze the tires around half track and got out of the groove and close to the wall.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink