Sun, 18 May 2003, 04:09 PM Top Alcohol Dragster Round 2 Eliminations

By Jim Samuel

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. - Results of round 2 eliminations in Top Alcohol Dragster 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
  110 Rich McPhillips                       200 Tony Bartone
E2                  -0.001  5.580 249.35     ****WINNER****  0.054  5.295 274.33
 Prior rounds:
E1    (B Insinger  ) 0.067  5.641 254.04      (F Monaghan  ) 0.038  5.321 273.50
 Qualified:             #5  5.644 254.52                       #13  9.163 100.52

3:52 PM - Current weather conditions: 61 degrees, 32 percent relative humidity, the barometer of 29.85 inches, with a track temperature of 71 degrees. Skies are cloudy and overcast.

McPhillips rolled in deep and turned off the pre-stage bulb. He drew the red light when he left the starting line one thousandth of a second too soon. Bartone had a clean run with just a hint of tire smoke.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    1 Arthur Gallant                         77 Steven Cantrell
E2                   0.094 16.754  42.90     ****WINNER****  0.066  5.438 246.39
 Prior rounds:
E1    (K Benkovich ) 0.104  5.667 245.27      (R Bourke    ) 0.082  5.473 236.67
 Qualified:             #8  5.759 255.92                       #16 28.000   NS

Gallant did a smokeless burnout before he staged, but anyone who has watched Gallant run in the past knew that that's not unusual for him to do. Gallant smoked the tires at the start and backed off the throttle by 330 feet. Cantrell had a good start but it sounded as if his engine stumbled a bit when he shifted. Cantrell gave up lane choice to Bartone in the next round.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
 3382 Robert Leverich                      1301 Douglas Foley
E2                  -0.277  8.956 125.04     ****WINNER****  0.064  6.701 141.36
 Prior rounds:
E1    (K Winward   ) 0.309  6.614 190.97      (B Horner    ) 0.161  6.357 159.44
 Qualified:            #11  6.851 210.28                        #3  5.608 242.41

Leverich's car was putting out a good bit of smoke when he staged. He left the starting line 27-hundredths of a second too soon for the red light and cruised down the track. Foley was fairly quick to 60 feet, but then started to fade the rest of the way.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  124 Steve Lamplough                       149 Mark Albert
E2                         No Time           ****WINNER****  0.111  5.530 256.70
 Prior rounds:
E1    (M Kosky     ) 0.032  5.571 251.67      (S Tafur     ) 0.331  5.612 247.29
 Qualified:            #15 11.568  69.81                       #10  6.462 193.07

Both cars pre-staged and Lamplough staged quickly. Albert took the full seven seconds he had to stage. As soon as he staged, Lamplough started to raise the revs on his engine and rolled through the beams before the tree was activated. As he ran down the track, Lamplough crossed over the center line and took out a few of the timing blocks. Albert had a strong run going but blew the blower as he crossed the finish line. He gave up lane choice to Doug Foley in the next round.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink