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Fri, 12 Nov 1999, 05:36 PM

POMONA - Pro Stock Truck Qualifying Notes, Session #3

By Michael L. Jex

Field Gets Tighter Again

POMONA, Calif. - Notes from round 3 qualifying in Pro Stock Truck at the 35th annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals 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:

Left Lane: Randy Daniels Runs 7.590/178.50, Now #5; Best prior run: 7.595/178.12, Was #8
Right Lane: Bob Panella Jr Runs 7.583/178.14, Now #1; Best prior run: 7.515/178.61, Was #1

1:33 PM We open with two okay runs under bright mid-day sunshine. The bump is Larry Kopp's 7.647. Panella's run looked fine, but he fell way off his Thursday pace.

Left Lane: Kim Smith Runs 7.728/174.03, Now #25; Best prior run: 7.697/175.23, Was #25
Right Lane: Jose Maldonado Runs 18.403/44.36, Now #27; Best prior run: 7.728/174.53, Was #27

Maldanado shook and gave it up very early in the run. Smith's truck did a little dance on the launch.

Left Lane: Brad Jeter No Time, Now #4; Best prior run: 7.588/177.46, Was #4
Right Lane: Jeff Lukovich Runs 7.777/173.90, Now #30; Best prior run: 7.776/174.64, Was #30

Jeter isn't feeling well, has the flu or something similar. He's running a Vinny Barone engine this weekend. Here he stutter-starts before the tree starts down and gets no time. Take two aspirin,...

Left Lane: Brian Self Runs 7.595/177.74, Now #6; Best prior run: 7.592/178.00, Was #6
Right Lane: Jerry Haas Runs 7.611/178.02, Now #10; Best prior run: 7.632/177.79, Was #11

Looks like conditions aren't far off what these teams saw yesterday.

Left Lane: Craig Eaton Runs 7.631/175.71, Now #11; Best prior run: 7.618/176.07, Was #11
Right Lane: Scott Tidwell Runs 7.696/175.89, Now #25; Best prior run: 11.459/78.63, Was #32

Tidwell's truck made a quick move toward the wall on the launch.

Left Lane: Don Smith Runs 7.584/178.02, Now #4; Best prior run: 7.672/177.32, Was #19
Right Lane: Scott Perin Runs 7.620/176.90, Now #13; Best prior run: 7.644/176.26, Was #14

Smith jumps into the top part of the field on a very crooked launch. That bumps Kopp and puts Mike Coughlin on the bubble at 7.645.

Left Lane: Mark Osborne Runs 7.552/178.66, Now #2; Best prior run: 7.553/178.54, Was #2
Right Lane: Bo Nickens Runs 7.748/174.23, Now #29; Best prior run: 7.741/174.55, Was #29

Track record speed for Osborne and the best ET of the round so far.

Left Lane: John Coughlin Runs 7.614/176.58, Now #8; Best prior run: 7.593/176.84, Was #8
Right Lane: Steve Johns Runs 7.621/178.10, Now #9; Best prior run: 7.595/178.31, Was #9

Both trucks were very loose on the launch.

Left Lane: Greg Stanfield Runs 7.613/177.37, Now #3; Best prior run: 7.570/177.46, Was #3
Right Lane: Todd Patterson Runs 7.642/175.68, Now #16; Best prior run: 7.663/175.07, Was #18

Patterson bumps Coughlin, replacing him on the bubble.

Left Lane: Lou Ficco Runs 7.690/175.52, Now #23; Best prior run: 7.688/175.96, Was #23
Right Lane: Dale Eaton Runs 7.689/174.96, Now #19; Best prior run: 7.666/175.59, Was #19

Left Lane: Roy Simmons Runs 7.750/174.26, Now #22; Best prior run: 7.681/175.57, Was #22
Right Lane: Ruben Celedon Runs 7.673/176.12, Now #15; Best prior run: 7.637/173.56, Was #15

The rubber on the launch pad looks like it's starting to come up. Simmons' truck picked up the front wheels and made a hard left turn on the launch.

Left Lane: Mike Coughlin Runs 7.614/177.04, Now #12; Best prior run: 7.645/176.47, Was #17
Right Lane: Chris DeSalvo Runs 7.814/171.21, Now #32; Best prior run: 7.907/171.36, Was #32

Coughlin returns the favor, bumping Patterson. That puts Ruben Celedon on the bubble at 7.637.

Left Lane: Jeff Gracia Runs 7.712/175.18, Now #27; Best prior run: 7.706/175.34, Was #27
Right Lane: John Lingenfelte Runs 7.665/176.72, Now #10; Best prior run: 7.605/178.07, Was #10

Gracia's S-10 was all over the first quarter of the lane.

Left Lane: Darren Davis Runs 7.809/174.08, Now #30; Best prior run: 7.776/174.75, Was #30
Right Lane: David Spitzer Runs 7.674/175.80, Now #20; Best prior run: 7.674/176.12, Was #20

An Excedrin moment for "California Kid" Davis, his truck shaking hard both before and after the 1-2 shift.

Left Lane: Mark Whisnant Runs 8.233/133.24, Now #21; Best prior run: 7.678/176.60, Was #21
Right Lane: Larry Kopp Runs 7.718/174.66, Now #18; Best prior run: 7.647/175.64, Was #18

Problems in both lanes, Whisnant on the top end and Kopp getting off the line. He's one session away from a DNQ.

Left Lane: Bart Price Runs 7.643/176.93, Now #15; Best prior run: 7.636/176.97, Was #15
Right Lane: Larry Seay Runs 7.710/175.30, Now #24; Best prior run: 7.695/176.24, Was #24

No help here to close the session.