Sat, 17 May 2003, 02:45 PM Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #2

By Jim Samuel

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. - Notes from round 2 qualifying in Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 34th annual K&N Filters SuperNationals presented by Pep Boys 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:

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Left Lane: Tim Wilkerson Runs 4.870/312.50, Now #1; No Prior Run
Right Lane: Dale Creasy Jr. Runs 4.958/290.13, Now #2; No Prior Run

2:08 PM - Current weather conditions: 58 degrees, 71 percent relative humidity, the barometer was 30.03 inches, and the track temperature was 91 degrees.

Even though this was round two of qualifying, for all but two drivers it was the first pass of the weekend. Both drivers had clean runs down the middle of the track.

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Left Lane: Bob Gilbertson Runs 8.928/128.26, Now #5; No Prior Run
Right Lane: Scotty Cannon Runs 5.065/263.92, Now #3; No Prior Run

Gilbertson unveiled his blue "Jungle Jim" tribute car with a three-quarter track burnout and was then backed up by Jungle Pam. When it came time to make the qualifying run, Gilbertson smoked the tires and backed out of the run by 330 feet. When Gilbertson let out his chutes at the end of the run, one third of the ashes of D.A. Santucci were released onto the track at Englishtown. Another third of his ashes will be released at Maple Grove in September and Santucci's wife, Barabra will keep the remaining one-third. Cannon was skating all over the track in the right lane.

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Left Lane: Gary Scelzi Runs 4.851/322.65, Now #1; No Prior Run
Right Lane: Cruz Pedregon Runs 6.864/127.74, Now #6; No Prior Run

Pedregon had some tire shake at the beginning of this run, got it back and then smoked the tires at mid track. Scelzi had a good run in the left lane.

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Left Lane: Frank Pedregon Runs 15.226/21.23, Now #9; No Prior Run
Right Lane: Dean Skuza Runs 15.092/68.55, Now #8; No Prior Run

Both drivers took the light, smoked the tires and shut down by 60 feet.

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Left Lane: Tommy Johnson Jr. Runs 4.817/318.69, Now #2; No Prior Run
Right Lane: John Force Runs 4.803/315.05, Now #1; No Prior Run

Johnson and Force had a pair of really nice runs and took the top two places of the order for now.

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Left Lane: Johnny Gray Runs 4.875/315.34, Now #6; No Prior Run
Right Lane: Ron Capps Runs 4.844/314.17, Now #3; No Prior Run

Two more good runs put Capps and Gray into the top half of the field, for now.

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Left Lane: Del Worsham Runs 4.826/318.39, Now #3; No Prior Run
Right Lane: Gary Densham Runs 7.493/119.96, Now #12; No Prior Run

Densham smoked the tires for a bit, then they started shaking, then went back to smoking while he lost the blower belt. Worsham had a clean run going for 1,000 feet then lost some cylinders at the end of the track.

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Left Lane: Tony Pedregon Runs 4.760/320.89, Now #1; No Prior Run
Right Lane: Whit Bazemore Runs 6.788/137.00, Now #12; No Prior Run

Bazemore smoked the tires for three-fourths of the track. Pedregon had a clean run from start to finish and moved into the top spot for now.

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Left Lane: Jack Wyatt Runs 5.143/275.06, Now #11; Best prior run: 5.306/248.75, Was #11

Wyatt is running last because he was the number one qualifies after session one because he was the only funny car driver to complete a pass last night before rain forced the cancellation of the rest of the session. This time, he had a straight run and knocked 163-thousandths of a second off his first round time.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink