Sat, 22 Oct 2011, 11:34 AM Top Alcohol Dragster Round 2 Eliminations

By Larry Sullivan

BAYTOWN, Texas - Results of round 2 eliminations in Top Alcohol Dragster at the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, South Central Division, event 2 at Royal Purple Raceway:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  498 Kristen Dennis                        471 Aaron Tatum                  
E2                   0.090  5.625 251.77     ****WINNER****  0.083  5.590 252.05
 Prior rounds:
E1    (R Copeland  ) 0.051  6.079 223.76      (J Thompson  ) 0.066  5.402 264.80
 Qualified:             #8  5.954 243.33                        #5  5.474 260.76

10:21 a.m. Looks like all four Top Alcohol Dragsters returned today.

Tatum was staged way to the left side of his lane, but it apparently worked okay for him. He had a small edge at the green and extended it early in the run, then Dennis started closing the gap, but ran out of race track. Aaron Tatum's incremental margins: 60ft(0.041), 330 ft(0.087), 660ft(0.065), 1,000ft(0.053). MOV: 0.0429 seconds (approximately 16 feet).

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  464 Buddy Domingue                        465 Michael Manners              
E2                         No Time           ****WINNER****  0.045  7.254 126.91
 Prior rounds:
E1    (D Brounkowsk) 0.086  5.530 248.07      (F Fair      ) 0.086  5.359 266.00
 Qualified:             #7  5.592 250.64                        #3  5.402 261.78

Manners was the clear favorite in this pairing, but his car is very aggressive and it is either very quick or it smokes the tires. His odds immediately improved when Dominggue's car was shut off after the burnout. Manners left hard and was on a good pace for about 300 feet, then he started ratting the tires and shut it off. Tatum will have lane choice against Manners in the final round.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink