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Sat, 15 Oct 2011, 04:26 PM

Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #3

By David Gerard

CHANDLER, Ariz. - Notes from round 3 qualifying in Funny Car at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, 27th annual NHRA Arizona 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: Ron Capps Runs 4.618/266.58, Now #13; No Prior Run
Right Lane: John Force Runs 4.890/234.90, Now #14; No Prior Run

12:49 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 85 degrees, relative humidity 18 percent, barometer 28.59 inches, adjusted altitude 3,380 feet, track temperature 122 degrees.

Tough tuning conditions yesterday finds these two at the bottom of the stack. Not their usual places!

Whoa! Lots of shake and spin for both cars. They pump and recover, but start to drop cylinders running to the finish line. Looked like a final round pedalfest!

With just 18 cars, they need for the others to do worse...

Left Lane: Jeff Diehl Runs 4.877/206.80, Now #14; No Prior Run
Right Lane: Johnny Gray Runs 4.240/285.83, Now #3; Best prior run: 4.310/277.49, Was #6

Gray is in and looking to improve and Diehl is just looking to get in.

Gray makes a clean and stright pass to the finish line and improves enough to move the Charger all the way to the new #3 spot.

Diehl gets in for now on a broken run. The Monte Carlo was loose at the 660 and still ran better than yesterday.

Johnny Gray's incremental times: 60ft-0.916 sec., 330ft-2.375, 660ft-3.397/248.80 mph.

Left Lane: Tony Pedregon Runs 4.593/218.27, Now #14; No Prior Run
Right Lane: Melanie Troxel Runs 4.402/275.90, Now #13; No Prior Run

We'll get a bump spot with these two.

Not much help on ET's, but both cars are in the field. They ran together to near the 660 lights and then Pedregon's Impala started to smoke the tires hard. He pumped it and recovered enough to improve on yesterday's time.

Troxel has a lot of smoke from underneath the car in the lights and runs close to yesterday best to get in the field. No oil on the track.

Melanie Troxel's incremental times: 60ft-0.911 sec., 330ft-2.418, 660ft-3.516/233.28 mph.

Left Lane: Jeff Arend Runs 4.411/274.55, Now #14; No Prior Run
Right Lane: Paul Lee Runs 4.481/234.82, Now #10; Best prior run: 4.335/287.17, Was #10

Jeff Diehl is on the bump spot at 4.877.

No joy for Lee with dropped cylinders early. He will stay #10.

Arend has engine problems after the 660 lights and slows from his best run yesterday. He still gets in the show in the number 14 spots.

Left Lane: Robert Hight Runs 4.356/277.72, Now #12; Best prior run: 4.368/278.46, Was #12
Right Lane: Bob Tasca III Runs 7.794/79.37, Now #9; Best prior run: 4.322/282.72, Was #9

Ron Capps is on the bump spot at 4.618.

Hight is away first and gets to the finish line with some of the candles still lit. He picks up just a tad of ET to stay #12.

Tasca had a strong leave, but was up in smoke before the 330 lights.

Robert Hight's incremental times: 60ft-0.910 sec., 330ft-2.425, 660ft-3.493/241.58 mph.

Left Lane: Todd Lesenko Runs 7.414/83.50, Now #11; Best prior run: 4.342/282.48, Was #11
Right Lane: Alexis DeJoria Runs 4.611/197.57, Now #8; Best prior run: 4.320/274.27, Was #8

No joy for these two.

Lesenko has the Charger start to hop around near the 330 lights and pumps the throttle before slowing.

DeJoria is done before the 660 light and won't improve this round.

Left Lane: Tim Wilkerson Runs 4.369/254.62, Now #7; Best prior run: 4.315/283.91, Was #7
Right Lane: Matt Hagan Runs 4.825/174.75, Now #6; Best prior run: 4.294/264.55, Was #6

Wilkerson gets near a full pass with dropped cylinders in the lights. He does improve, but its still the third best pass of the session, so far.

Hagan's Charger was away first and was matching Wilkerson's numbers until right at the 660 light and smoked the tires.

Tim Wilkerson's incremental times: 60ft-0.922 sec., 330ft-2.403, 660ft-3.458/238.85 mph.
Matt Hagan's incremental times: 60ft-0.924 sec., 330ft-2.430, 660ft-3.572/200.95 mph.

Left Lane: Mike Neff Runs 4.855/169.13, Now #4; Best prior run: 4.251/287.23, Was #4
Right Lane: Jack Beckman Runs 4.788/175.64, Now #5; Best prior run: 4.279/284.45, Was #5

Beckman was away first, but Neff's Mustang was more aggressive down low, they arrived at the 330 lights together and then both cars started to smoke the tires. Neither car will improve.

Left Lane: Jim Head Runs 8.195/71.98, Now #2; Best prior run: 4.238/289.07, Was #2
Right Lane: Cruz Pedregon Runs 8.014/77.55, Now #1; Best prior run: 4.215/296.37, Was #1

Last pair of the session.

Dueling tire smokers! They had identical 0.920 sixty foot times and then both kicked the tires hard before the 330 lights.

1:18 p.m. Ron Capps is on the bump spot at 4.618.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink