Sun, 25 May 2003, 02:39 PM Funny Car Round 2 Eliminations

By Rick Green

TOPEKA, Kan. - Results of round 2 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
   71 Cruz Pedregon                          73 Frank Pedregon
E2   ****WINNER****  0.094  4.947 304.39                     0.082  5.434 201.97
 Prior rounds:
E1    (T Johnson Jr) 0.057  4.901 310.13      (S Cannon    ) 0.086  5.242 276.80
 Qualified:            #12  4.874 318.09                       #13  4.890 310.84

Current weather conditions: 66 degrees, 62 percent relative humidity, the barometer 30.09 inches under sunny skies.

This is the rubber match between these two brothers, this is the seventh time they have met with each winning three times.

Frank with the starting line advantage but Cruz had the difference made up by 330 feet and then just drove away when Frank blistered the hides around 900 feet.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    5 Whit Bazemore                         347 Tim Wilkerson
E2   ****WINNER****  0.067  4.872 317.64                     0.083  6.208 151.48
 Prior rounds:
E1    (B Gilbertson) 0.071  4.833 321.50      (R Capps     ) 0.072  4.860 316.01
 Qualified:             #3  4.802 326.48                       #11  4.861 315.56

Bazemore holds a 12 to 8 advantage in previous head to head match ups.

Whit with starting line advantage but Wilkerson was real aggressive off the line and had the lead at 60 feet. Wilkerson lost traction around 200 feet he started to smoke the tires to about half before he clicked it off..

Nice pass for Bazemore.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    1 John Force                              4 Gary Densham
E2                  -0.112 13.604  82.33     ****WINNER****  0.105  4.876 314.68
 Prior rounds:
E1    (D Skuza     ) 0.062  4.792 322.73      (D Worsham   ) 0.077  4.887 307.30
 Qualified:             #2  4.800 320.43                       #10  4.852 314.68

Force for the first time in his storied career fouled out in back to back events. Densham with a nice pass, but he will give up lane choice to Bazemore.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   20 Gary Scelzi                             2 Tony Pedregon
E2                   0.061  6.035 155.65     ****WINNER****  0.056  4.888 317.42
 Prior rounds:
E1    (J Gray      ) 0.099  4.845 322.73      (D Creasy Jr ) 0.084  4.845 311.41
 Qualified:             #8  4.833 323.35                        #1  4.743 316.97

Tony with the starting line advantage and never looked back for the win. Tony will have lane choice over his brother Cruz in the next round. Scelzi blistered the hides around half track to end his weekend.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink