Mon, 4 Sep 2000, 05:56 PM INDY - Federal-Mogul Dragster Final, Round 4 Eliminations

By Larry Sullivan

CLERMONT, Ind. - Results of final, round 4 eliminations in Federal-Mogul Dragster at the 46th annual U.S. Nationals:

 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   4 Dave Hirata         5.633 255.00  Q    2 Jay Meyer           5.553 253.75
   (R Bayne     ) 0.503  5.525 261.12  E1   (G Roberts   ) 0.502  5.580 251.67
   (R Lindert   ) 0.603  5.461 263.72  E2   (S Federlin  ) 0.505  5.523 252.61
   (R Santos    ) 0.467  5.384 267.16  E3   (S Howard    ) 0.444  5.498 255.10
                  0.486  6.308 207.69  E4 *****WINNER***** 0.445  5.497 254.23

4:50 PM Meyer and Hirata met twice before in final rounds this season, once in divisional competition, once at a national event. Meyer won both of those meetings. But here he came in facing an apparent tenth of a second performance advantage for Hirata. He got half of that back at the tree, then roared away to win easily when Hirata overpowered the track about 300 feet off the starting line. That keeps Meyer's hopes of winning the Federal-Mogul championship alive, still needing three more national event wins to match Rick Santos' record.