Sun, 13 Oct 2002, 06:07 PM Top Fuel Final, Round 4 Eliminations

By Larry Sullivan

ENNIS, Texas - Results of final, round 4 eliminations in Top Fuel at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 17th annual O'Reilly Fall Nationals presented by Castrol Syntec:

Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   8 Doug Kalitta        4.625 323.74  Q   10 Cory McClenathan    4.651 314.46
   (C Millican  ) 0.410  4.587 320.39  E1   (T Schumacher) 0.485  4.588 322.00
   (A Cowin     ) 0.483  4.567 323.27  E2   (D Herbert   ) 0.508  4.602 315.01
   (K Bernstein ) 0.474  5.468 289.29  E3   (R Hartman-Sm) 0.595 10.132  82.25
 *****WINNER***** 0.491  4.582 322.58  E4                  0.487  6.565 130.62

4:43 PM One of these two will be Bob Frey's "big event," the 500th Top Fuel winner in NHRA history. But the 500th national event was Indy this year, you say? True, but Top Fuel was not contested at all of them.

These two are just about dead even in prior races, Cory Mac with a career 8-7 record against Kalitta. They each won once against the other this year and this is the first time they have met in a final round. It was Kalitta's 24th final round, with 10 wins, Cory Mac's 41st, with 26 wins. THis one was over quickly, McClenathan first away from the starting line and then up in smoke. Kalitta wasn't far behind at the green and made another almost flawless run, his third 4.50s elapsed time of the day.