Fri, 2 May 2003, 05:15 PM Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #1

By Bob Orme

COMMERCE, Ga. - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 23rd annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals presented by Pontiac listing lane, driver name, elapsed time, top speed, and position in order following run:

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Right Lane: Jack Wyatt Runs 5.281/261.83, Now #1

No apparent problems for Wyatt.

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Left Lane: Dale Creasy Jr. Runs 7.468/115.35, Now #3
Right Lane: Tim Wilkerson Runs 5.090/251.34, Now #1

Creasy smoked the tires at 300 feet and he clicked it off.

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Left Lane: Scotty Cannon No Time, Now #3
Right Lane: Bob Gilbertson Runs 5.116/278.00, Now #1

Cannon hit the throttle for his burnout and it sounded like the rev limiter wasn't set correctly. He popped the burst panel and didn't make a pass.

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Left Lane: Cruz Pedregon Runs 5.743/184.70, Now #4
Right Lane: Gary Scelzi Runs 9.269/89.76, Now #6

Both drivers smoked the tires at about 300 feet. Pedregon tried to pedal through it only to pitch the blower belt shortly thereafter

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Left Lane: Frank Pedregon Runs 7.246/115.30, Now #5
Right Lane: Dean Skuza Runs 9.260/92.67, Now #7

Tire smoke for both drivers, Skuza at about 300 feet, Pedregon at about 400 feet.

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Left Lane: John Force Runs 4.940/303.78, Now #2
Right Lane: Tommy Johnson Jr. Runs 4.917/309.13, Now #1

Both cars ran clean and straight, a good looking side-by-side drag race.

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Left Lane: Johnny Gray Runs 5.114/296.63, Now #2
Right Lane: Ron Capps Runs 5.363/206.86, Now #5

Gray had a lot of smoke trailing from the rear of the car at the finish. Capps was down on speed at half track and shut it off well before the lights.

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Left Lane: Gary Densham Runs 5.254/251.34, Now #5
Right Lane: Del Worsham Runs 5.107/296.44, Now #2

Densham was wiggling around at half track, the car moving very close to the retaining wall near the finish line. Worsham had traction troubles of his own, the tires spinning at about 1000 feet.

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Left Lane: Whit Bazemore Runs 4.985/304.80, Now #4
Right Lane: Tony Pedregon Runs 4.924/307.02, Now #2

These two were pretty close all the way down the track. The only visible problems for either driver was a little engine smoke out of the back of Pedregon's car at the finish line, and Bazemore's chute failed to deploy. Bazemore managed to get the car stopped before running off the end of the track, but by standing on the brakes, he welded the aluminum front brake rotors to the brake pads.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink