Sun, 25 May 2003, 01:37 PM Top Alcohol Dragster Round 2 Eliminations

By Larry Sullivan

TOPEKA, Kan. - Results of round 2 eliminations in Top Alcohol Dragster 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
 7438 Morgan Lucas                          391 Bill Reichert
E2                   0.033  5.416 260.91     ****WINNER****  0.058  5.193 277.03
 Prior rounds:
E1    (J Haley     ) 0.039  5.446 261.37      (T Rudy      ) 0.178  7.418 142.51
 Qualified:             #9  5.458 262.18                        #1  5.289 274.50

12:21 PM Current weather conditions: 68 degrees, 41 percent relative humidity, the barometer 30.11 inches under sunny skies.

Two nitro burners lead off the quarterfinals, Lucas with lane choice after Reichert shut off early with shake in the first round. Didn't matter, Reichert hooked it up to make the third-quickest and second-fastest run in TAD history, the car thundering down the lane. Bill Reichert's incremental times: 60ft-0.922 sec., 330ft-2.372, 660ft-3.468/228.46mph, 1,000ft-4.394.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    8 Shelly Howard                          51 Alan Bradshaw
E2                   0.046  5.407 254.04     ****WINNER****  0.034  5.378 259.26
 Prior rounds:
E1    (D Shields   ) 0.033  5.428 260.31      (M Myers     ) 0.037  5.673 255.48
 Qualified:             #7  5.431 259.21                        #2  5.321 254.38

Good drag race, but Bradshaw was a bit quicker on the tree, then fell behind, but his fueler out ran Howard's blown car on the top half of the run for the win. Alan Bradshaw's incremental margins (negative if behind): 60ft(-0.025), 330 ft(-0.069), 660ft(-0.035), 1,000ft(0.012). MOV: 0.0418 seconds (approximately 16 feet).

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  312 Keith Stark                           303 Todd Datweiler
E2                   0.045  5.824 233.60     ****WINNER****  0.097  5.336 265.48
 Prior rounds:
E1    (J Thompson  ) 0.065  5.484 264.34      (M Bowers    ) 0.086  5.321 264.96
 Qualified:             #3  5.348 268.12                        #6  5.386 260.97

Datweiler has been consistently quick all weekend, but Stark showed competitive numbers on his second qualifying run, so this was a toss-up. Stark beat Datweiler on the tree, but dropped at least one cylinder immediately and Datweiler continued to be the model of consistency, all five runs between 5.431 and 5.321. He will have lane choice against Datweiler in the semifinals.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    7 Marty Thacker                           9 David Wells
E2   ****WINNER****  0.030  5.445 262.03                     0.063  9.474  84.01
 Prior rounds:
E1    (B Badgett   ) 0.013  5.398 263.67      (J Wilson    ) 0.043  5.376 262.23
 Qualified:             #4  5.383 262.03                        #5  5.386 262.64

Two blown cars met here, Thacker with the better light and Wells with tire shake. Wells was right of the groove in the middle of his run, hurting his elapsed time a bit, but against Reichert's 5.193, he didn't have a chance of getting lane choice in the semifinals anyway.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink