Sun, 4 May 2003, 02:55 PM Funny Car Round 3 Eliminations

By Bob Orme

COMMERCE, Ga. - Results of round 3 eliminations in Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 23rd annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals presented by Pontiac:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   10 Johnny Gray                             1 John Force
E3   ****WINNER****  0.007  5.257 276.69                     0.064  6.932 128.15
 Prior rounds:
E2    (G Densham   ) 0.052  5.064 305.91      (D Worsham   ) 0.007  4.902 311.41
E1    (G Scelzi    ) 0.017  4.864 313.37      (B Gilbertson) 0.026  4.826 320.20
 Qualified:            #13  4.923 311.13                        #1  4.768 320.13

2:42 PM Force struck the tires at about 300 feet, tried to pedal through it but couldn't get the car to hook up. Gray started hazing the tires at about 800 feet but by that point he was way ahead of Force.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    5 Whit Bazemore                           2 Tony Pedregon
E3                   0.058  7.114 167.53     ****WINNER****  0.064  5.102 275.96
 Prior rounds:
E2    (F Pedregon  ) 0.076  4.927 313.44      (R Capps     ) 0.074  4.873 310.84
E1    (T Wilkerson ) 0.096  4.890 312.35      (D Creasy Jr ) 0.082  4.863 319.98
 Qualified:             #3  4.802 322.73                        #2  4.799 320.58

Bazemore lost traction at around 100 feet. Like the previous pair, Bazemore tried to pedal it, and Pedregon hazed the tires much farther down the track. Pedregon will have lane choice over Gray in the final round.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink