Sat, 6 Oct 2001, 05:58 PM READING - Top Fuel Qualifying Notes, Session #3

By Larry Sullivan

MOHNTON, Pa. - Notes from round 3 qualifying in Top Fuel at the 17th annual Pep Boys NHRA Nationals presented by Greased Lightning listing lane, driver name, elapsed time/top speed this round, position in order following run, best prior elapsed time/speed, and position in order prior to run:

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Right Lane: Tony Schumacher Runs 4.523/333.08, Now #1; Best prior run: 4.689/308.00, Was #10

1:26 PM It's 60 degrees, 55 percent humidity - and the Pro Stock cars just ripped up the record books. Schumacher rips one here, a great run, the fastest speed ever, not backed up yet. He'll need a 329.75 to back that up as a national record. Both numbers are career-bests for a driver and team that has been struggling to get back to their dominant form from last year.

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Left Lane: Doug Herbert Runs 6.225/136.28, Now #9; Best prior run: 4.662/310.63, Was #8
Right Lane: Darrell Russell Runs 4.615/314.97, Now #8; Best prior run: 4.676/310.84, Was #10

Herbert left hard, but smoked the tires about 200 feet out. No tire smoke for Russell, but after Schumacher's rocket ride, his sixty looked tame!

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Left Lane: Doug Kalitta Runs 10.122/67.90, Now #7; Best prior run: 4.602/309.63, Was #7
Right Lane: Andrew Cowin Runs 4.636/298.14, Now #6; Best prior run: 4.589/318.84, Was #6

Both these cars started out hard, Kalitta recording a 0.965 60-foot time with the rear tires - the front wheels already a couple feet in the air at that point. Then the car started to "climb the ring gear" and he finally was forced to lift, the car approaching a blowover. The front end banged down hard, breaking the front A-frame. Cowin's run was almost a duplicate of Russell's to about 1,000 feet and then the engine started smoking heavily from the right side and the car slowed, only running 30 mph faster than his half-track speed.

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Left Lane: Mike Dunn Runs 4.494/320.97, Now #1; Best prior run: 4.570/326.40, Was #3
Right Lane: Larry Dixon Runs 4.612/313.37, Now #4; Best prior run: 4.570/317.94, Was #4

Wow! Dunn runs low ET of the meet and the engine started going away around the 1,000 foot marker. Dixon posted a super-aggressive 0.839 60-foot time (Dunn's was 0.863) but dropped a cylinder on the left side early in the run and another, on the right side, on the top end.

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Left Lane: Kenny Bernstein Runs 4.514/312.78, Now #2; Best prior run: 4.586/315.93, Was #5
Right Lane: Gary Scelzi Runs 6.919/117.70, Now #4; Best prior run: 4.544/320.13, Was #3

Scelzi started smoking the tires about 200 feet out. Bernstein was slightly off Dunn's pace all the way down the track, hazing the tires for the final 300 feet.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink