Sun, 25 May 2003, 03:57 PM Funny Car Round 3 Eliminations

By Rick Green

TOPEKA, Kan. - Results of round 3 eliminations in Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 15th annual O'Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals presented by Castrol GTX:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    2 Tony Pedregon                          71 Cruz Pedregon
E3   ****WINNER****  0.073  4.857 317.94                     0.063  5.533 197.10
 Prior rounds:
E2    (G Scelzi    ) 0.056  4.888 317.42      (F Pedregon  ) 0.094  4.947 304.39
E1    (D Creasy Jr ) 0.084  4.845 311.41      (T Johnson Jr) 0.057  4.901 310.13
 Qualified:             #1  4.743 316.97                       #12  4.874 318.09

Current weather conditions: 68 degrees, 50 percent relative humidity, the barometer 30.09 inches and the some fair weather clouds are passing over the track.

Tony has the advantage in previous match ups 10 - 7. Cruz with the slight starting line advantage, but Tony has it made up by 100 feet and never looked back. Cruz started to lose traction on the top end.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    5 Whit Bazemore                           4 Gary Densham
E3   ****WINNER****  0.066  4.898 314.39                     0.081  9.164  94.04
 Prior rounds:
E2    (T Wilkerson ) 0.067  4.872 317.64      (J Force     ) 0.105  4.876 314.68
E1    (B Gilbertson) 0.071  4.833 321.50      (D Worsham   ) 0.077  4.887 307.30
 Qualified:             #3  4.802 326.48                       #10  4.852 314.68

Bazemore out of the gate first, but Densham with a very aggressive launch was out in the lead at 60 feet, but then he just blistered the Goodyears. Bazemore with a whisp of tire smoke on the top end. Bazemore will give up lane choice to Pedregon in the final.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink