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Sat, 24 May 2003, 02:17 PM

Pro Stock Qualifying Notes, Session #3

By Larry Sullivan

TOPEKA, Kan. - Notes from round 3 qualifying in Pro Stock at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 15th annual O'Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals presented by Castrol GTX listing lane, driver name, elapsed time/top speed this round, position in order following run, best prior elapsed time/speed, and position in order prior to run:

Left Lane: Larry Peternel Runs 7.033/195.25, Now #27; Best prior run: 7.007/195.25, Was #27
Right Lane: Barry Grant Runs 6.934/198.50, Now #25; Best prior run: 6.916/199.05, Was #25

12:48 PM Current weather conditions: 66 degrees, 88 percent relative humidity, the barometer 29.93 inches under partly cloudy skies.

With these conditions, it will take an exceptional run for anyone on the outside to break into the field, the bump as we start V. Gaines' 6.883. Witness this first pair, falling off about two or three hundredths from their previous best runs of the event.

Left Lane: Jerry Haas Runs 6.967/197.25, Now #24; Best prior run: 6.912/199.32, Was #24
Right Lane: Jeff Dickey Runs 7.038/195.22, Now #28; Best prior run: 7.019/194.72, Was #28

The left side of Haas' car sports new sheet metal and no decals after a brush with the wall during testing at gateway earlier this week. Since that's just down the road from his shop, they were able to replace the dinged-up sheet metal before coming here.

Left Lane: Troy Coughlin Runs 6.958/197.94, Now #23; Best prior run: 6.911/199.17, Was #23
Right Lane: Nick Fratt Runs 6.960/197.88, Now #26; Best prior run: 6.993/198.82, Was #26

Coughlin's Cavalier veered to the left on the launch, pretty much wiping out his chances on this run.

Left Lane: Larry Morgan Runs 7.809/131.43, Now #22; Best prior run: 6.904/199.55, Was #22
Right Lane: Gene Wilson Runs 6.934/198.82, Now #21; Best prior run: 6.902/200.86, Was #21

Teammates, one in a Neon, one in a Stratus. Morgan spun the tires hard on the launch and threw in the towel just past half tack, the reason not obvious because he was running right with Wilson at that point.

Left Lane: Ben Watson Runs 6.941/198.35, Now #20; Best prior run: 6.895/198.64, Was #20
Right Lane: Darrell Alderman Runs 6.914/198.70, Now #18; Best prior run: 6.886/199.94, Was #18

Alderman made the quickest pass so far in this session and it wasn't enough. Watson lost a lot of ground on the top end of his run.

Left Lane: Allen Johnson Runs 6.885/200.35, Now #18; Best prior run: 6.890/199.61, Was #19
Right Lane: George Marnell Runs 6.930/198.52, Now #17; Best prior run: 6.883/199.85, Was #17

Nice run by AJ, his best of the weekend, but in these conditions it's not quite good enough by a couple thousandths.

Left Lane: JR Carr Runs 7.663/137.54, Now #15; Best prior run: 6.875/199.35, Was #15
Right Lane: V. Gaines Runs 6.914/199.76, Now #16; Best prior run: 6.883/200.83, Was #16

Carr's Cavalier got out of the groove and started fishtailing, Carr wisely throwing in the towel before things got out of control. Good run by Gaines, giving a good measure of the effect today's conditions are having.

Left Lane: Greg Stanfield Runs 6.900/199.23, Now #11; Best prior run: 6.859/200.26, Was #11
Right Lane: Mike Edwards Runs 6.904/198.96, Now #14; Best prior run: 6.871/200.17, Was #14

Two pretty good runs, showing how good AJ's run was by comparison. So far nobody has run better than the current bump time in this session. By the way, the remaining cars are all in the field, so no bumping.

Left Lane: Scott Geoffrion Runs 6.892/200.29, Now #10; Best prior run: 6.857/201.10, Was #10
Right Lane: Mark Whisnant Runs 6.923/198.15, Now #13; Best prior run: 6.862/200.17, Was #13

Geoffrion propels the Ford to the second-best run of the session so far.

Left Lane: Ron Krisher Runs 6.923/199.55, Now #9; Best prior run: 6.857/201.34, Was #9
Right Lane: Warren Johnson Runs 6.905/199.73, Now #12; Best prior run: 6.860/201.55, Was #12

It's unusual to see either of these drivers in the bottom half of the field, let alone both of them. They stay there with clean middle-of-the-pack runs.

Left Lane: Jeg Coughlin Runs 6.888/199.67, Now #8; Best prior run: 6.855/200.44, Was #8
Right Lane: Mark Pawuk Runs 6.908/199.37, Now #6; Best prior run: 6.853/200.71, Was #6

Two more good runs, Jeg now the second-best of the round, and still nobody better than the current bump time.

Left Lane: Jim Yates Runs 6.897/199.58, Now #7; Best prior run: 6.855/200.59, Was #7
Right Lane: Terry Adams Runs 6.911/199.79, Now #5; Best prior run: 6.851/201.31, Was #5

Nice run by Yates. Adams was left of the groove and flirting with the center line on the top end, but he didn't lift.

Left Lane: Taylor Lastor Runs 6.889/200.29, Now #4; Best prior run: 6.849/201.16, Was #4
Right Lane: Bruce Allen Runs 12.259/70.98, Now #3; Best prior run: 6.848/200.71, Was #3

Last weekend, both these drivers were outside the field on Sunday. Allen's run in this round looked a lot like those he made at Englishtown, the car instantly shaking. Lastor made a pretty run, right down the groove.

Left Lane: Kurt Johnson Runs 6.963/200.44, Now #2; Best prior run: 6.838/201.76, Was #2
Right Lane: Greg Anderson Runs 6.838/201.28, Now #1; Best prior run: 6.825/202.15, Was #1

Sounded like KJ missed a gear, KAZING! Anderson made the best run of the round, but Allen Johnson was only 0.012 seconds slower and did not make the field, making a good run in a bad session, Anderson the only driver running quicker than the bump time in the session.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink