Fri, 16 May 2003, 12:39 PM Top Alcohol Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #1

By Larry Sullivan

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Top Alcohol 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, and position in order following run:

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Left Lane: Paul Gill Runs 5.833/241.89, Now #1
Right Lane: Bruce Peterson Jr. Runs 7.026/175.11, Now #2

Current weather conditions: 56 degrees, 75 percent relative humidity, the corrected barometer 30.30 inches, with a track temperature of 72 degrees.

Peterson shook, pedaled, shook again and got sideways, then gathered it in. Nice, clean pass by Gill to give the rest of the field something to shoot at.

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Left Lane: Bruce Mullins Runs 6.074/237.17, Now #2
Right Lane: Eric Lourie Runs 6.371/246.84, Now #3

Mullins' new Firebird sports a nice-looking orange and purple paint scheme with green flames. Lourie's car also sports a nice paint scheme, with flame, of course. Mullins trucked on down the lane, the car appearing to be down on power. Lourie shook and pedaled to get out of it, showing more power on the top end.

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Left Lane: Fred Tigges Runs 7.952/115.17, Now #6
Right Lane: Bunny Burkett Runs 5.885/241.50, Now #2

Tigges had a dead cylinder from the start, heading for the center line. Nice opening pass by Bunny, clean and straight, the first driver to tame the shakes in the right lane.

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Left Lane: Jay Payne Runs 5.615/257.58, Now #1
Right Lane: Charles Gambino Runs 7.855/115.64, Now #7

Payne's car shook and danced a bit on the launch and drove through it very nicely. Gambino's car appeared to be down on power and he threw in the towel around half track.

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Left Lane: Bobby Martin Runs 5.986/247.47, Now #4
Right Lane: Bob Newberry Runs 6.627/247.20, Now #7

Newberry spun the tires hard, pedaled, shook, and generally had a bad day early in the run. Clean, straight run for Martin with a little shake about 100 feet out.

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Left Lane: Paul Lee Runs 7.541/128.62, Now #10
Right Lane: Frank Manzo Runs 6.059/186.46, Now #5

Lee's car shook and skated all the way down the lane. Manzo looked to be on a okay run, then his engine went silent, the reason not apparent, running 205 mph at half track.

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Left Lane: Scott Woodington Runs 8.236/125.18, Now #14
Right Lane: Jason Rupert Runs 5.845/243.33, Now #3

Woodington shook and skated around right from the start. Rupert went right down the groove on a smooth run.

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Left Lane: Darrel Cox Runs 8.436/94.33, Now #15
Right Lane: Jim Sickles No Time, Now #16

Sickles spun and shook hard, the car almost collecting the wall. Cox also went to the right, flirting with the center line, leaving small pieces of debris in his wake. Sickles crossed the outer boundary line, so his run doesn't count.

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Left Lane: Michael Ferro Runs 5.797/246.35, Now #2

Last car of the round. Ferro made a nice, smooth, easy run to jump into the provisional #2 spot.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink