Sun, 4 May 2003, 02:45 PM Top Fuel Round 3 Eliminations

By Larry Sullivan

COMMERCE, Ga. - Results of round 3 eliminations in Top Fuel 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
  797 David Baca                              6 Darrell Russell
E3                   0.059 11.624  82.04     ****WINNER****  0.068  4.650 318.17
 Prior rounds:
E2    (R Hartman-Sm) 0.146  4.783 301.60      (T Schumacher) 0.079  4.640 318.62
E1    (C Vandergrif) 0.128  4.603 314.83      (D Herbert   ) 0.073  4.597 320.13
 Qualified:             #3  4.566 318.99                       #10  4.644 316.52

2:37 PM Current weather conditions: 81 degrees, 41 percent relative humidity, the barometer 30.05 inches, with a track temperature of 119 degrees under cloudless skies.

These two split their prior two matchups, Baca winning in Las Vegas and Russell in Phoenix. This one was all Russell, baca up in smoke before he got to the 330-foot marker while Russell made a flawless-looking run.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  104 Clay Millican                           1 Larry Dixon
E3                   0.052  4.910 240.72     ****WINNER****  0.058  4.570 322.50
 Prior rounds:
E2    (B Bernstein ) 0.080  4.781 298.21      (J Smith     ) 0.110  4.562 327.98
E1    (D Lampus    ) 0.063  4.905 239.48      (M Smith     ) 0.049  4.650 310.20
 Qualified:             #9  4.641 312.64                        #5  4.573 323.35

Dixon held a 3-0 edge against Millican before this run. Make it 4-0, Millican losing a tenth of a second to Dixon before they went 330 feet, then falling further behind when he hazed the tires on the top half of the run. Dixon goes to the finals and will choose the lanes against Russell.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink