Sat, 15 Oct 2011, 09:06 PM Top Alcohol Funny Car Round 1 Eliminations

By Dave Rowe

REYNOLDS, Ga. - Results of round 1 eliminations in Top Alcohol Funny Car at the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, Southeast Division, event at Silver Dollar Raceway:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
        Bye                                   2 Mickey Ferro                 
E1                                            ****WINNER****  0.133  7.977 113.57
 Qualified:                                                       #1  5.586 258.96

8:48 p.m. Ferro gets about 300 feet out, the rear of the car starts moving around and he wisely backs off the throttle.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   26 Melinda Green-King                      7 Todd Veney                   
E1                   0.120  6.261 172.70     ****WINNER****  0.129  5.692 252.28
 Qualified:             #7  5.964 242.23                        #2  5.660 255.05

Green-King gets out of the gate first and starts to pull away. Veney pulled even before they reached the 330 foot mark and slowly started to pull ahead. Green-King started drifting toward the centerline around half track, got very close to the center line, then had to back off the throttle to but got close enough to the 1000 foot timing block to blow the reflector out. Veney takes the win and moves on to the next round.

Todd Veney's incremental margins (negative if behind): 60ft(-0.050), 330 ft(0.010), 660ft(0.082), 1,000ft(0.225). MOV: 0.5603 seconds (more than 100 feet).

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    9 Clint Thompson                         25 Mark Billington              
E1                   0.074  6.082 186.48     ****WINNER****  0.074  5.695 255.92
 Qualified:             #6  5.812 246.21                        #3  5.689 256.45

They leave the line together then Thompson gets out to an early lead. Billington pulls even before they reach the sixty foot mark and drives around Thompson. Thompson started having problems late in the run and had to click it off early.

Billington will give up lane choice to Veney in the next round.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    8 Brian Hough                            71 Steve Gasparrelli            
E1                   0.058  5.820 242.28     ****WINNER****  0.055  5.777 251.53
 Qualified:             #5  5.808 252.33                        #4  5.724 254.90

Hough was moving around all the way through the run, getting very close to the wall a couple of times, but never backed off the throttle. Gasparrelli was in front from the start and went right down the groove to take the win. He will have lane choice over Ferro in the next round.

Steve Gasparrelli's incremental margins: 60ft(0.035), 330 ft(0.028), 660ft(0.032), 1,000ft(0.034). MOV: 0.0468 seconds (approximately 17 feet).

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink