Sun, 18 May 2003, 05:47 PM Top Alcohol Funny Car Round 3 Eliminations

By Larry Sullivan

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. - Results of round 3 eliminations in Top Alcohol Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 34th annual K&N Filters SuperNationals presented by Pep Boys:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    3 Jay Payne                               1 Frank Manzo
E3                  -0.035  5.764 255.05     ****WINNER****  0.024  5.671 260.46
 Prior rounds:
E2    (B Burkett   ) 0.052  5.698 253.90      (T Veney     ) 0.046  5.573 260.36
E1    (S Woodington) 0.070  5.582 259.51      (D Cox       ) 0.076  5.552 262.33
 Qualified:             #1  5.615 257.58                        #5  5.736 259.56

5:37 PM The track is still cool, just 78 degrees, so traction should not be a problem, the Sun peeking in and out of the clouds.

Payne rolled in, then rolled deep, then rolled the beams and turned the red bulb on. Manzo lost a tenth from his two prior runs, but his car showed no signs of problems and he still ran 260 mph!

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  125 Eric Lourie                             8 Bob Newberry
E3                   0.112  6.157 227.27     ****WINNER****  0.112  5.578 258.07
 Prior rounds:
E2    (M Ferro     ) 0.070  5.907 244.92      (P Lee       ) 0.129  5.613 256.60
E1    (P Gill      ) 0.139  5.958 242.93      (F Tigges    ) 0.220  5.671 254.28
 Qualified:            #14  6.371 246.84                        #2  5.674 255.29

Lourie has led a charmed life in eliminations, two much-quicker opponents red lighting against him so far. His lucky charm must have been used up because Newberry left right with him, then ran another mid-fifty elapsed time to advance to the finals with lane choice over Manzo.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink