Sun, 18 May 2003, 03:31 PM Funny Car Round 3 Eliminations

By Jim Samuel

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. - Results of round 3 eliminations in 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
   28 Ron Capps                             503 Tommy Johnson Jr.
E3   ****WINNER****  0.035  4.901 316.52                     0.053  7.915 115.98
 Prior rounds:
E2    (J Force     ) 0.057  4.838 314.90      (T Wilkerson ) 0.088  4.814 321.35
E1    (J Gray      ) 0.050  4.885 318.62      (B Gilbertson) 0.074  4.809 323.74
 Qualified:             #7  4.844 314.17                        #3  4.817 318.69

3:15 PM - Current weather conditions: 60 degrees, 37 percent relative humidity, the barometer WAS 29.89 inches, with a track temperature of 77 degrees.

Johnson has won against Capps three times and lost four times. The last time they met was at Dallas last year when Johnson won in the first round. Johnson smoked the tires as soon as he hit the throttle and had to back off of this run. Capps smoked his tires a bit but not enough to keep him from recording a 4.90 run.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    5 Whit Bazemore                           2 Tony Pedregon
E3   ****WINNER****  0.040  4.824 321.42                    -0.019  4.815 319.52
 Prior rounds:
E2    (D Worsham   ) 0.074  4.813 324.59      (G Scelzi    ) 0.039  4.799 322.04
E1    (C Pedregon  ) 0.078  4.830 322.88      (T Haddock   ) 0.057  4.819 320.66
 Qualified:             #5  4.836 313.44                        #1  4.760 320.89

Pedregon has 16 wins and 10 losses against Bazemore. The last time they met this late in a race was at Maple Grove last year when Pedregon beat Bazemore in the final round. Pedregon staged and turned out the pre-stage bulb. When the tree counted down, he left too soon and drew the red light. Bazemore had a strong run with just a bit of tire smoke that earned him lane choice in the final round against Capps. This will be Bazemore's fourth trip to the finals in eight NHRA events this year. He has lost all three of his previous trips to the finals this year.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink