Sun, 05 Oct 2014, 14:06 PM Funny Car Round 2 Eliminations

By Jim Samuel

MOHNTON, Pa. - Results of round 2 eliminations in Funny Car at the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, 30th annual Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  170 Jeff Arend                             10 Tim Wilkerson                
E2   ****WINNER****  0.087  4.096 308.85                     0.113  4.147 292.96
 Prior rounds:
E1    (C Force     ) 0.070  4.598 221.45      (R Hight     ) 0.098  4.408 203.80
 Qualified:            #13  4.093 310.55                       #12  4.090 314.46

1:52 p.m. - Weather conditions: air temperature 58 degrees, relative humidity 45 percent, barometer 29.31 inches, adjusted altitude 1,044 feet, track temperature 85 degrees.

Arend was quicker at the tree and was out in front the whole way down the track. Wilkerson's car lost a cylinder in the second half of the race, so that killed any chance he had of overtaking Arend.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    4 Cruz Pedregon                          33 Tommy Johnson Jr.            
E2                   0.063  4.077 312.35     ****WINNER****  0.078  4.008 316.52
 Prior rounds:
E1    (J Bojec     ) 0.139  4.057 305.36      (R Capps     ) 0.037  4.040 321.50
 Qualified:             #1  3.991 319.52                        #9  4.065 316.01

Cruz Pedregon had 11 - 10 against Johnson coming into this round. In second round competition, Johnson has the edge with five wins and three losses to Pedregon. Add another to the win column for Johnson. Pedregon got off the starting line a little bit quicker than Johnson, but Johnson's car pulled ahead. As they neared the finish line, Johnson's car had flames coming out from underneath. Johnson will have lane choice over Arend in the next round.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  771 Alexis DeJoria                         77 Bob Tasca III                
E2   ****WINNER****  0.070  4.084 309.34                     0.065  4.115 301.13
 Prior rounds:
E1    (D Worsham   ) 0.120  4.676 200.17      (J Force     ) 0.063  4.079 313.15
 Qualified:            #10  4.087 307.02                       #15  4.568 167.63

Tasca and DeJoria had raced each other three times before this and Tasca won all three of those meetings. This time, the win went to DeJoria. She trailed this race to 330 feet, then pulled ahead of Tasca for the win.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    3 Jack Beckman                            2 Matt Hagan                   
E2                   0.089  5.560 128.52     ****WINNER****  0.060  4.039 315.05
 Prior rounds:
E1    (C Head      ) 0.079  4.279 306.19      (T Pedregon  ) 0.063  4.035 319.37
 Qualified:             #6  4.017 316.97                        #3  4.008 321.50

Beckman was 14 - 11 against Hagan in prior events, but 7 - 7 in second round competition. Beckman smoked the tires at 330 feet. It will be Hagan vs. DeJoria in the next round with Hagan having lane choice.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink