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Fri, 12 Nov 1999, 08:31 PM

POMONA - Pro Stock Truck Qualifying Notes, Final Session

By Larry Sullivan

Panella Resets Record

POMONA, Calif. - Notes from final, round 4 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: Jerry Haas Runs 7.574/178.26, Now #4; Best prior run: 7.611/178.02, Was #11
Right Lane: Brad Jeter Runs 7.601/177.63, Now #6; Best prior run: 7.588/177.46, Was #5

4:52 PM The final qualifying session opens with Ruben Celedon on the bubble at 7.637. No help for Jeter, but Haas makes a nice move up the ladder with a straight run.

Left Lane: Scott Tidwell Runs 7.638/176.44, Now #17; Best prior run: 7.696/175.89, Was #25
Right Lane: Brian Self Runs 7.639/177.28, Now #8; Best prior run: 7.592/178.00, Was #8

Tidwell misses by a clock tick, 0.001 seconds, with a better speed than Celedon.

Left Lane: Scott Perin Runs 7.650/176.44, Now #14; Best prior run: 7.620/176.90, Was #14
Right Lane: Craig Eaton Runs 7.644/175.89, Now #13; Best prior run: 7.618/176.07, Was #13

No help here, Perin's truck making a move to the left on the launch.

Left Lane: Bo Nickens Runs 7.728/173.92, Now #29; Best prior run: 7.741/174.55, Was #29
Right Lane: Don Smith Runs 7.639/177.81, Now #5; Best prior run: 7.584/178.02, Was #5

Nope!

Left Lane: Steve Johns Runs 7.539/178.85, Now #2; Best prior run: 7.595/178.31, Was #10
Right Lane: Mark Osborne Runs 7.583/178.78, Now #3; Best prior run: 7.552/178.66, Was #2

Nice side-by-side exhibition, these two welded together all the way through, Johns making a big move up the ladder.

Left Lane: Todd Patterson Runs 7.611/175.34, Now #12; Best prior run: 7.642/175.68, Was #18
Right Lane: John Coughlin Runs 7.610/177.18, Now #10; Best prior run: 7.593/176.84, Was #10

Nice pass by Patterson to put the Dodge back in the field and bump celedon. That puts Bart Price on the bubble at 7.636.

Left Lane: Dale Eaton Runs 7.628/175.94, Now #16; Best prior run: 7.666/175.59, Was #20
Right Lane: Greg Stanfield Runs 7.576/178.94, Now #4; Best prior run: 7.570/177.46, Was #4

Eaton replaces Price on the bubble.

Left Lane: Ruben Celedon Runs 7.674/175.68, Now #18; Best prior run: 7.637/173.56, Was #18
Right Lane: Lou Ficco Runs 7.674/175.89, Now #22; Best prior run: 7.688/175.96, Was #24

Celedon said last night that his truck "just shut off" on the top end on his best run. No help here for either driver.

Left Lane: Chris DeSalvo Runs 12.224/57.89, Now #32; Best prior run: 7.814/171.21, Was #32
Right Lane: Roy Simmons Runs 7.678/176.12, Now #24; Best prior run: 7.681/175.57, Was #24

No help here either.

Right Lane: Mike Coughlin Runs 7.615/176.74, Now #13; Best prior run: 7.614/177.04, Was #13

Nice consistency by Coughlin...

Left Lane: David Spitzer Runs 7.626/175.98, Now #16; Best prior run: 7.674/176.12, Was #21
Right Lane: Jeff Gracia Runs 7.667/175.62, Now #22; Best prior run: 7.706/175.34, Was #27

Spitzer bumps Dale Eaton, replacing him on the bubble.

Left Lane: Larry Kopp Runs 7.642/176.42, Now #21; Best prior run: 7.647/175.64, Was #21
Right Lane: Darren Davis Runs 7.782/174.26, Now #30; Best prior run: 7.776/174.75, Was #30

Kopp comes up short, his third DNQ of the year.

Left Lane: Larry Seay Runs 7.666/175.64, Now #23; Best prior run: 7.695/176.24, Was #26
Right Lane: Mark Whisnant Runs 7.620/176.77, Now #16; Best prior run: 7.678/176.60, Was #24

Whisnant replaces Spitzer on the bubble.

Left Lane: Bob Panella Jr Runs 7.491/178.92, Now #1; Best prior run: 7.515/178.61, Was #1
Right Lane: Bart Price Runs 7.755/174.17, Now #19; Best prior run: 7.636/176.97, Was #19

Panella earns 20 extra points if he can hang on to that 7.49 as a national record. His earlier runs back it up, but somebody else could take it away before Sunday.

Left Lane: Jose Maldonado Runs 7.752/174.50, Now #28; Best prior run: 7.728/174.53, Was #28
Right Lane: Randy Daniels Runs 16.080/53.21, Now #8; Best prior run: 7.590/178.50, Was #8

Daniels slowed almost immediately.

Left Lane: Jeff Lukovich Runs 17.897/46.60, Now #31; Best prior run: 7.776/174.64, Was #31
Right Lane: Kim Smith Runs 7.696/174.30, Now #27; Best prior run: 7.697/175.23, Was #27

Lukovich shook immediately and called it a weekend. Smith made his best pass of the weekend, but it was well off the pace.

That's it, qualifying is over for the trucks for this century.