Sun, 7 Oct 2001, 06:34 PM READING - Federal-Mogul Dragster Round 3 Eliminations

By Larry Sullivan

MOHNTON, Pa. - Results of round 3 eliminations in Federal-Mogul Dragster at the 17th annual Pep Boys NHRA Nationals presented by Greased Lightning:

 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   9 Steve Cantrell      5.578 249.35  Q    4 Mark Hentges        5.491 257.58
   (R McPhillips) 0.502  5.539 250.69  E1   (J Headley   ) 0.503  5.423 262.54
   (A Gallant   ) 0.495  5.570 252.05  E2   (B Gibson    ) 0.500  5.375 267.32
                  0.484  9.864  78.03  E3 *****WINNER***** 0.494  5.312 264.44

2:28 PM Cantrell left first, but his rear tires shook and the car skated around, getting very sideways before he shut it down. Hentges drove through light shake to his best run of the weekend.

 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   6 Bill Reichert       5.529 256.21  Q    2 Rick Santos         5.414 258.37
   (K Benkovich ) 0.537  5.517 262.13  E1   (S Bowen     ) 0.460  5.377 262.79
   (C Bozzelli  ) 0.486  5.316 266.21  E2   (T Slagle    ) 0.463  5.278 267.16
                  0.484  5.328 264.70  E3 *****WINNER***** 0.464  5.293 265.48

First, Santos needed to win to be able to block Hentges from winning the event. Second, he needed to run a 5.330 to back up his 5.278 from last round as a national record. he accomplished both objectives, but Reichert has nothing to be ashamed of, making a very good run of his own in pursuit of the very best in the country for the past few years. Santos has lane choice against Hentges in the finals.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink