Sun, 2 Oct 2011, 02:18 PM Funny Car Round 2 Eliminations

By Jim Samuel

MOHNTON, Pa. - Results of round 2 eliminations in Funny Car at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, 27th annual Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  170 Jeff Arend                            302 Dale Creasy Jr.              
E2   ****WINNER****  0.081  4.190 282.54                     0.135  7.056 104.99
 Prior rounds:
E1    (C Pedregon  ) 0.062  4.161 289.20      (J Force     ) 0.129  4.542 235.43
 Qualified:            #10  4.084 310.77                       #15  4.481 281.42

2:03 p.m. - Weather conditions: air temperature 54 degrees, relative humidity 65 percent, barometer 29.21 inches, adjusted altitude 979 feet, track temperature 66 degrees.

The only time these two raced before this was back in June 2005 in Chicago. Arend won that race.

Creasy shook the tires coming out of the gate. He tried to pedal and get the car hooked up, but shook again so he clicked it off. Arend drove through some tire shake to take the win.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    9 Tony Pedregon                           5 Bob Tasca III                
E2                   0.082  4.727 177.39     ****WINNER****  0.066  4.146 299.20
 Prior rounds:
E1    (T Wilkerson ) 0.086  4.164 293.03      (J Beckman   ) 0.064  4.124 311.99
 Qualified:            #13  4.169 297.22                       #12  4.106 308.85

Before this race, Pedregon had three wins and nine losses against Tasca, and was 0-4 against him in second round competition. Make that 0-5 for Pedregon after Tasca beat him off the starting line and stayed out in front to take the win. Pedregon hung close to 660 feet when his car lost power.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   31 Johnny Gray                          7701 Mike Neff                    
E2   ****WINNER****  0.093  4.578 197.68                     0.073  8.554  77.12
 Prior rounds:
E1    (L Pruett    ) 0.094  4.319 254.57      (J Head      ) 0.087  4.078 313.66
 Qualified:             #1  4.010 318.62                        #8  4.066 316.45

Gray has a 1-2 record against Neff. He beat Neff in the first round at Las Vegas in April, but lost in the second round at Englishtown and the third round in Charlotte.

Neff was first out of the gate and out in front at 60 feet, then he spun struck the rear tires and went up in smoke. Gray's car had a shake and stutter as it crossed the finish line and that kept him from winning lane choice over Tasca in the next round.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
 2814 Matt Hagan                              8 Robert Hight                 
E2                   0.043  7.293  89.06     ****WINNER****  0.067  4.096 314.02
 Prior rounds:
E1    (B Alexander ) 0.060  4.058 313.80      (R Capps     ) 0.053  4.041 317.42
 Qualified:             #3  4.012 316.67                       #11  4.090 312.21

Hight had four wins and three losses in prior competition against Hagan.

Hagan launched and shook the tires. He pedaled it but when he did, the engine blew at 330 feet. Hight got the win and won lane choice over Arend in the next round.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink