Sun, 11 Nov 2001, 04:58 PM POMONA 3 - Funny Car Round 2 Eliminations

By Darryl Jackman

POMONA, Calif. - Results of round 2 eliminations in Funny Car at the 37th annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals:

 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   5 Gary Densham        4.805 318.62  Q    4 Tommy Johnson Jr.   4.797 316.67
   (S Cannon    ) 0.544  4.773 324.98  E1   (T Wilkerson ) 0.505  4.819 318.32
 *****WINNER***** 0.460  4.797 320.28  E2                  0.504  8.715  91.21

1:32 PM The conditions must be just about as perfect as they ever get at Pomona. Broken clouds and temperatures in the low 70's. Densham unloads another seventy on his fellow racers. That car was close to smoking the tires. If you see it at home look for a whisp of smoke off the tires at the hit. Johnson trailed due to massive tire smoke.

 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   1 Whit Bazemore       4.741 322.27  Q    8 Johnny Gray         4.825 315.27
   (B Gilbertson) 0.527  4.759 323.43  E1   (B Sarver    ) 0.484  4.882 314.02
 *****WINNER***** 0.507  4.743 321.96  E2                  0.508  5.758 205.13

Bazemore just keeps the hits coming. This one was darn near out of the park. Gray smoked the tires and could only watch as Baze went right down the middle of the lane. Whit has lane choice over Densham in the semi's.

 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   2 John Force          4.788 318.32  Q    7 Dean Skuza          4.818 314.24
   (J Toliver   ) 0.515  4.750 317.87  E1   (F Pedregon  ) 0.501  4.851 313.07
                  0.496  7.569  96.85  E2 *****WINNER***** 0.484  4.904 304.67

John just blew one up big time. He whisps the tires at the hit and at about 330 there was a loud boom and the burst panel went flying high into the air. In fact it appeared the whole body just ballooned out like a cartoon car. It sure wasn't funny to John. His ears are still ringing. In the other lane Skuza was taking the win but it was costly to him as well. It appeared that after the lights she kicked all the rods out onto the ground and he had a pretty good fire until the bottle took care of it.

 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   3 Tony Pedregon       4.793 317.12  Q   11 Del Worsham         4.846 318.84
   (A Hofmann   ) 0.494  4.801 316.67  E1   (R Capps     ) 0.516  5.604 244.43
                  0.501  4.868 285.35  E2 *****WINNER***** 0.500  4.823 322.58

It's good that they don't run these on paper. Based on first round results you would have handed the win to Tony. It didn't work that way. Those two were neck and neck as they neared the finish and thats when it appeared that belt came off the supercharger on the Mustang. Del took the advantage and pulled away for the win. Worsham will have lane choice over Skuza in the other semi.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink