Fri, 23 May 2003, 03:57 PM Top Alcohol Dragster Qualifying Notes, Session #1

By Larry Sullivan

TOPEKA, Kan. - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Top Alcohol Dragster 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, and position in order following run:

---

Left Lane: Mitch Myers Runs 5.693/239.31, Now #1
Right Lane: Jared Dreher Runs 5.807/242.02, Now #2

Current weather conditions: 75 degrees, 60 percent relative humidity, the barometer 30.11 inches, under partly cloudy skies.

Both drivers made uneventfil opening passes.

---

Left Lane: Jeff Bohr Runs 5.781/247.84, Now #3
Right Lane: Larry Traugott Runs 5.674/250.00, Now #1

Two more clean runs, with no obvious problems.

---

Left Lane: Ed Schmeeckle No Time, Now #6
Right Lane: Bill Reichert Runs 5.369/270.81, Now #1

Schmeeckle's car was pushed away after the burnout. Very nice opening pass by Reichert, right down the groove with no dropped cylinders.

---

Left Lane: Duane Shields Runs 5.481/259.21, Now #2
Right Lane: John Haley Runs 5.939/237.96, Now #7

Shields went right down the groove with no visible problems. Haley's car appeared to drop cylinders on the top half of the run.

---

Left Lane: Robert Badgett Runs 5.577/249.49, Now #3
Right Lane: Keith Stark Runs 5.928/249.26, Now #8

Stark dropped cylinders in bunches. Nice run by Badgett, down the groove.

---

Left Lane: Marty Thacker Runs 5.439/261.47, Now #2
Right Lane: Shelly Howard Runs 5.889/184.77, Now #9

Howard's car was off the pace before half track. Thacker's ran on all eight al, the way.

---

Left Lane: Todd Datweiler Runs 5.431/260.61, Now #2
Right Lane: Darryl Hitchman Runs 6.885/152.64, Now #13

Great pass by Datweiler, with a big speed to go with it. Hitchman shook early and slowed at half track.

---

Left Lane: Gary Cooper Runs 12.372/73.64, Now #15
Right Lane: Jeff Wilson Runs 11.300/103.67, Now #14

Both cars shook and shut off early in their runs.

---

Left Lane: David Wells Runs 5.633/228.65, Now #7
Right Lane: Morgan Lucas Runs 5.472/257.68, Now #4

Two good runs, no real problems.

---

Left Lane: Tim Rudy Runs 5.960/221.96, Now #15
Right Lane: Alan Bradshaw Runs 8.504/91.74, Now #17

Rudy's car dropped a bunch of cylinders, trailing a spray of raw fuel. Bradshaw had problems just past 330 feet and slowed.

---

Left Lane: Gene Snow Runs 9.026/90.21, Now #19
Right Lane: Mike Bowers Runs 5.486/246.66, Now #6

Snow had several dead cylinders and called it off. Good run by Bowers.

---

Left Lane: James Thompson Runs 5.604/257.14, Now #8

Thompson got out of the groove, to the left, fishtailed a couple times, and smoothly drove out of it to end the session.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink