Sun, 05 May 2019, 12:06 PM Funny Car Round 1 Eliminations |
By Rick Green |
COMMERCE, Ga. - Results of round 1 eliminations in Funny Car at the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, 39th annual Arby's NHRA Southern Nationals:
Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
5 Tim Wilkerson 71 Cruz Pedregon
E1 ****WINNER**** 0.075 3.963 321.12 0.066 5.753 121.59
Qualified: #4 3.959 324.83 #13 4.644 188.91
Weather conditions: air temperature 80 degrees, relative humidity 63 percent, barometer 28.97
inches, adjusted altitude 3,367 feet, track temperature 103 degrees.Tim Wilkerson was the champion here in 2015. This is the 500th race for Tim and he is the ninth pro driver to reach the 500 race mark. Cruz Pedregon won here in 1998.
Pedregon is 20 - 17 against Wilkerson in prior events.
Pedregon with the slight starting line advantage and then started to lose traction and
he clicked it off. Wilkerson with a good looking pass and was just a few ticks off his qualifying
time for the win.
Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
2 Robert Hight 121 Terry Haddock
E1 ****WINNER**** 0.072 3.942 310.91 0.126 5.681 122.10
Qualified: #1 3.920 328.54 #16 6.258 138.46
Robert Hight won here in 2007, 2010 and 2014. He is 54 - 10 in the first round after qualifying
No. 1. His 65 No. 1 spots ranks sixth among all pro drivers.Hight is 4 - 0 against Haddock in prior events.
Hight with the starting line advantage and never trailed for the win.
Haddock
was up in smoke early and the car was completely sideways before he clicked it off.
Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
1 J.R. Todd 703 Jim Campbell
E1 ****WINNER**** 0.067 4.696 172.94 -0.065 4.244 291.89
Qualified: #2 3.944 323.50 #15 5.727 122.51
J.R. Todd was runner-up here in Top Fuel in 2016. Jim Campbell is making his 61st
start.Todd is 3 - 2 against Campbell in prior events.
Campbell turned on the red light to give Todd the win. He then runs his quickest pass of the weekend in the loss.
Todd started to
smoke the tires early and clicked it off for the win.
Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
9 John Force 7 Jack Beckman
E1 ****WINNER**** 0.038 3.994 327.74 0.091 4.040 312.78
Qualified: #3 3.958 322.04 #14 5.126 149.12
John Force has won this race seven times and been runner-up another seven times. He is 26 - 9
in round 1 at this race (74%). Jack Beckman has a pair of wins here, in 2009 and 2011. Jack has
an overall record against John of 31 - 15 (67%) and that is, by far, the best winning percentage of
any driver who has faced John at least 10 times.Force deep staged and gets the starting line advantage and never trailed for the win.
Beckman with his quickest pass of the weekend in the
losing effort.
Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed 77 Bob Tasca III 139 Dave Richards E1 ****WINNER**** 0.067 4.020 314.97 0.093 4.406 231.44 Qualified: #5 3.981 314.61 #12 4.442 211.46This is the first time Tasca III and Richards have faced each other in eliminations.
Tasca III with the starting line advantage and never trailed for the win. He will give up lane choice to Wilkerson.
Richards is dropping cylinders on the top end and clicked it off. He still ran his
quickest pass of the weekend in the losing effort.
Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed 333 Shawn Langdon 28 Ron Capps E1 0.060 4.414 202.09 ****WINNER**** 0.064 4.076 315.78 Qualified: #6 3.987 322.11 #11 4.149 290.94Ron Capps has a pair of wins in Atlanta. This is his 24th race in Atlanta and the 11th time he has started from the bottom half of the field.
Capps is 4 - 2 against Langdon in prior events.
Langdon with a slight starting line advantage, but starts to drop cylinders and it pushed him out of the groove and the car starts to lose traction to end his day. The car then popped and the word is there is oil on the track. Shawn Langdon was charged with an oildown, #2 for the season. That will cost 10 points and $2K.
Capps with his quickest of the weekend for the win. He will
give up lane choice to Force in the next round.
Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
3 Tommy Johnson Jr. 2814 Matt Hagan
E1 ****WINNER**** 0.087 4.037 309.84 0.082 4.113 287.35
Qualified: #7 4.031 313.66 #10 4.129 263.98
Matt Hagan won here in 2016 and was runner-up in 2013 and 2018.Hagan is 17 - 10 against Johnson Jr. in prior events.
Hagan with the slight starting line advantage, but Johnson Jr. had
the lead by the time they went by the Christmas tree and never trailed from there on for the win.
He was just a few ticks off his qualifying time, but will still have lane choice over Todd in the
next round.
Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed 256 Blake Alexander 116 Paul Lee E1 No Time ****WINNER**** 0.093 6.348 102.03 Qualified: #8 4.101 295.40 #9 4.113 308.57Blake Alexander was runner-up here in Top Fuel last year. This is the 79th race for Paul Lee and his first since the NHRA Finals in 2016.
This is the first time Alexander and Lee have faced each other in eliminations.
Alexander's team can't get the car to fire and Lee waits and waits. Finally NHRA tells Lee to fire the car. Alexander finally gets the car to start, but the chute came out and the team couldn't get it to the line before NHRA told him to shut it off. Daniel wilkerson said after the race it was problems with safety shut off.
Lee then went up in smoke but
still gets the win.
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