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Fri, 11 Oct 2002, 07:27 PM

Top Alcohol Dragster Qualifying Notes, Session #2

By Larry Sullivan

ENNIS, Texas - Notes from round 2 qualifying in Top Alcohol Dragster at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 17th annual O'Reilly Fall Nationals presented by Castrol Syntec 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: Bruce Bowler Runs 5.486/260.34, Now #6; Best prior run: 5.662/254.66, Was #15
Right Lane: Mark Niver Runs 5.479/257.65, Now #4; Best prior run: 5.512/244.69, Was #6

5:38 PM It's 73 degrees, 56 percent relative humidity, the barometer 30.05 and falling, under sunny skies. The track temperature is 99 degrees.

The second session opens with a pair of A/Fuel cars. Both went cleanly down the groove with all eight lit all the way through.

Left Lane: Rick Santos Runs 5.353/264.08, Now #2; Best prior run: 10.576/71.67, Was #25
Right Lane: Larry Becktold Runs 6.744/203.20, Now #21; Best prior run: 6.449/227.15, Was #20

That's more like it! A pretty run by Santos, the incremental times: 60ft-0.926 sec., 330ft-2.360, 660ft-3.506/214.84mph, 1,000ft-4.503
Becktold struggled to get off the line, with a 1.349 60-foot time, and the car was sluggish to half track. After the run, the Safety Safari did some grooming in his lane, so he may have been lightly oiling his tires.

Left Lane: Lee Callaway Runs 5.616/255.53, Now #10; Best prior run: 5.521/257.51, Was #9
Right Lane: Bill Reichert Runs 5.394/265.72, Now #3; Best prior run: 7.493/125.01, Was #22

Nice run by Reichert after struggling in the first session. No help for Callaway, Reichert pushing him one rung down the ladder.

Left Lane: Gary Ormsby Jr Runs 5.319/256.55, Now #1; Best prior run: 7.939/100.27, Was #23
Right Lane: Erica Walsh-Credeur Runs 5.721/243.96, Now #18; Best prior run: 5.654/245.49, Was #17

Ormsby's car was spewing raw fuel from header on both sides of the engine for the last half of the run and he still took over the #1 spot! No help for Credeur.

Left Lane: Todd Datweiler Runs 5.448/250.62, Now #5; Best prior run: 5.456/254.81, Was #5
Right Lane: Tony Bartone Runs 5.962/251.88, Now #17; Best prior run: 5.627/257.65, Was #17

Two good runs for Datweiler, right down the groove. Once again Bartone's new dragster struggled, with a sub-par 1.064 60-foot time, only running 201 mph at half track.

Left Lane: David Christy Runs 15.165/56.81, Now #27; No Prior Run
Right Lane: Shelly Howard Runs 5.446/260.04, Now #5; Best prior run: 5.458/260.49, Was #6

Christy's car launched with the wheels up and then nosed over, the engine silent. Nice run by Howard, but her engine left a spray of something behind her on the top end. No oil, so we continue.

Left Lane: Alan Bradshaw Runs 5.557/256.26, Now #14; Best prior run: 5.581/254.09, Was #14
Right Lane: David Wells Runs 5.513/256.99, Now #11; Best prior run: 5.574/256.99, Was #13

With evening approaching, the track temperature is steadily dropping - now it's down to 91 degrees. Two nice runs here, Wells leapfrogging over Bradshaw in the order.

Left Lane: Mitch Myers Runs 5.848/240.96, Now #10; Best prior run: 5.510/252.88, Was #10
Right Lane: Jeff Hamelink Runs 10.778/87.92, Now #26; Best prior run: 11.902/79.65, Was #26

Hamelink shook and then smoked the tires. Myers dropped a couple cylinders early in the run.

Left Lane: James Copeland II Runs 5.561/255.68, Now #15; Best prior run: 5.608/256.84, Was #15
Right Lane: Arthur Gallant Runs 5.345/268.01, Now #2; Best prior run: 5 .335/260.56, Was #2

Copeland stepped up a few hundredths, stayed fifteenth. Gallant made a very nice run, losing a hundredth from his first pass, but setting top speed of the event so far.

Left Lane: Ed Schmeeckle Runs 5.663/252.03, Now #19; Best prior run: 5.684/251.04, Was #21
Right Lane: Gene Snow Runs 5.523/257.65, Now #13; Best prior run: 5.550/246.84, Was #13

Looks like "Snowman" is getting the hang of this drag racing stuff...

Left Lane: Chris Ricketts Runs 15.264/65.35, Now #25; Best prior run: 8.286/89.23, Was #24
Right Lane: Brandon Johnson Runs 5.563/256.41, Now #16; Best prior run: 8.652/94.27, Was #25

Ricketts picked the front wheels up and started smoking the tires immediately. No problems for Johnson, who replaced Larry Traugott on the bubble.

Left Lane: James Thompson Runs 5.568/254.95, Now #17; Best prior run: 5.709/251.04, Was #23

Three left-side singles will complete the session. Thompson is running a new car, billed as a "2003 Monden." He made a nice run, missing the bump time by 0.005 seconds despite some early tire shake.

Left Lane: Mike Bowers Runs 5.910/210.42, Now #24; No Prior Run

Bowers made it to the other end under power...

Left Lane: James Gascoyne Runs 8.861/97.85, Now #22; Best prior run: 5.671/241.28, Was #22

Gascoyne launched, the tires started to spin, the engine unloaded and dropped several cylinders, and he started coasting.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink