Sun, 7 Oct 2001, 07:13 PM READING - Funny Car Round 3 Eliminations

By Jim Samuel

MOHNTON, Pa. - Results of round 3 eliminations in Funny Car 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
  12 Johnny Gray         4.906 303.91  Q    1 John Force          4.731 325.14
   (G Densham   ) 0.508  6.159 254.52  E1   (B Gilbertson) 0.512  4.747 321.42
   (T Pedregon  ) 0.536  4.896 294.95  E2   (D Skuza     ) 0.508  4.762 320.20
                  0.504  5.621 178.42  E3 *****WINNER***** 0.470  4.750 313.88

The only other time Johnny Gray made it to the semifinals this season, he lost to John Force at National Trail Raceway in Columbus, Ohio. This is the farthest Gray has gone since then. In contrast, there have been only five events this season in which Force did not make it to the semifinals. With this run, Force became the first NHRA driver to compete in 1,000 elimination runs. Gray beat two Force owned cars to get to the semifinals. This round was John Force all the way. he got the better start and was leading the race when Gray smoked the tires and had to back off.

 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
  14 Frank Pedregon      4.918 309.34  Q    2 Whit Bazemore       4.762 324.67
   (D Worsham   ) 0.534  4.877 309.20  E1   (A Hofmann   ) 0.498  4.788 317.12
   (J Epler     ) 0.494  4.917 313.66  E2   (S Cannon    ) 0.521  4.761 315.05
                  0.523 10.129  87.07  E3 *****WINNER***** 0.526  4.732 322.81

Pedregon had to get through Worsham and Epler to get into the semifinals, while Bazemore got through Hofmann and Cannon. Pedregon smoked the tires coming off the line and backed off. Bazemore had a great run, just one-thousandth of second off the record Force set yesterday in qualifying. Bazemore won lane choice in the final round against Force.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink