Sat, 16 Feb 2013, 13:11 PM Competition Eliminator Qualifying Notes, Final Session

By Larry Sullivan

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Notes from final, round 2 qualifying in Competition Eliminator at the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, Southeast Division, Prelude to the Gators at Auto Plus Raceway at Gainesville listing lane, driver name, elapsed time, top speed this round, amount over/under index this round, position in order following run, best prior elapsed time, speed & over/under Index, and position in order prior to run:

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Left Lane: Pat Williams Runs 7.108/189.76/-0.112, Now #8; A/AP Index: 7.22, Prior Best: 7.133/199.85/-0.087, Was #8
Right Lane: Lonnie Johnson Runs 7.828/197.08/0.258, Now #9; B/AA Index: 7.57, No Prior Run

12:55 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 59 degrees, relative humidity 53 percent, barometer 29.76 inches, adjusted altitude 650 feet, track temperature 68 degrees.

Something on or in Johnson's car did not pass post-run tech yesterday, so that run did not count.

Johnson's car shook the tires and he struggled to get them hooked up, killing his ET. Williams made a slightly better run than he made yesterday, but he's well off of a competitive pace for eliminations.

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Left Lane: Tony Terry Runs 8.264/164.43/-0.586, Now #3; G/AA Index: 8.85, Prior Best: 8.236/163.81/-0.614, Was #3
Right Lane: Kevin Houghtaling Runs 8.562/158.78/-0.728, Now #1; H/A Index: 9.29, Prior Best: 8.657/157.61/-0.633, Was #2

These two made very good runs yesterday. Terry made a clean run, but failed to improve. Houghtaling improved almost a tenth over his first run, making him the first more than seven tenths under his index and he takes the #1 spot away from Lee Sharp.

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Left Lane: Lee Sharp Runs 8.367/162.53/-0.583, Now #2; D/SMA Index: 8.95, Prior Best: 8.288/161.52/-0.662, Was #2
Right Lane: Danny Holt Runs 8.071/166.42/-0.579, Now #5; C/EA Index: 8.65, Prior Best: 8.137/165.03/-0.513, Was #5

Sharp's car made a hard left turn on the launch and he was left of the groove for the first 300 feet. He failed to improve. Holt picked up a few hundredths, stayed fifth.

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Right Lane: Michael Hardee Runs 8.367/162.02/-0.623, Now #3; D/SM Index: 8.99, Prior Best: 8.394/160.86/-0.596, Was #4

Hardee made a nice run to move one spot up the ladder.

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Right Lane: Rob Carpenter Runs 8.778/151.36/-0.402, Now #6; F/SMA Index: 9.18, Prior Best: 8.746/152.87/-0.434, Was #6

Carpenter closed out the session with a slightly slower run than yesterday.

That completes Competition Eliminator qualifying. Ten cars will be back later this afternoon for their first round of eliminations.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink