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Fri, 11 Oct 2002, 04:47 PM

Pro Stock Qualifying Notes, Session #1

By Larry Sullivan

ENNIS, Texas - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Pro Stock 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, and position in order following run:

Left Lane: Mark Carter Runs 9.908/92.10, Now #2
Right Lane: Steve Schmidt Runs 6.930/196.93, Now #1

3:09 PM It's 74 degrees, 52 percent relative humidity, the barometer 30.10 and falling, under sunny skies, the track temperature now 98 degrees.

Schmidt is driving the car usually driven by Mark Osborne, with Hoosier tires. False start, the computer system not in the right mode to start the cars. So they backed the cars out, reset the computer, and tried again. The second try worked, but Carter shook and skated around before lifting. Full pass for Schmidt.

Left Lane: Mike Trumble Jr Runs 6.955/199.73, Now #2
Right Lane: Scott Geoffrion Runs 6.976/198.76, Now #3

This is the first race where Geoffrion's Ford is running the new Panella powerplant. Both cars went right down the groove.

Left Lane: Mike Corvo Jr Runs 9.869/93.43, Now #4
Right Lane: Brad Jeter Runs 6.904/200.44, Now #1

Corvo launched, shook, and lifted. Jeter went right down the groove and to the top of the heap - for now, anyway.

Left Lane: Don Smith Runs 9.449/99.06, Now #5
Right Lane: Arturo Delgado Runs 6.926/199.42, Now #2

Smith shook and skated around, then lifted. Clean pass for Delgado.

Left Lane: John Geyer No Time, Now #8
Right Lane: Ben Watson Runs 6.954/199.20, Now #3

Geyer broke in the water. Watson went right down the groove.

Left Lane: John Nobile Runs 6.996/198.76, Now #7
Right Lane: Robert Patrick Runs 6.933/199.55, Now #3

Both cars were a bit sow off the line, with 1.05 60-foot times.

Left Lane: Kenny Koretsky Runs 6.958/198.10, Now #7
Right Lane: Greg Stanfield Runs 6.936/200.40, Now #4

Stanfield give us our second 200 mph speed of the weekend.

Left Lane: Larry Nance Runs 6.911/200.98, Now #3
Right Lane: Tom Lee Runs 6.908/200.57, Now #2

Two nice runs, two more 200 mph speeds, but Jeter stays #1.

Left Lane: Larry Morgan Runs 7.060/197.80, Now #13
Right Lane: Mark Pawuk Runs 6.933/199.46, Now #6

Morgan's car was moving around a lot in the middle of the run.

Left Lane: Tom Martino Runs 6.937/199.77, Now #8
Right Lane: JR Carr Runs 6.955/199.02, Now #11

Two more clean runs, no visible problems.

Left Lane: Troy Coughlin Runs 12.369/98.84, Now #21
Right Lane: Tom Hammonds Runs 6.894/200.35, Now #1

Coughlin shook and slowed early. Nice pass for Hammonds.

Left Lane: Gene Wilson Runs 6.906/200.71, Now #4
Right Lane: V. Gaines Runs 6.900/200.26, Now #2

Two good runs, Gaines hoping to make it three wins in a row here.

Left Lane: Bruce Allen Runs 6.881/200.93, Now #1
Right Lane: George Marnell Runs 6.939/199.46, Now #14

Allen gives the home-state fans a good show for their money and goes to the top, for now.

Left Lane: Darrell Alderman Runs 6.931/200.26, Now #11
Right Lane: Mark Whisnant Runs 6.899/200.08, Now #3

Left Lane: Allen Johnson Runs 6.936/200.08, Now #16
Right Lane: Mike Edwards Runs 6.904/200.26, Now #6

The 60-foot times have not been very low this round, Bruce Allen's 1.022 the best so far, with most competitive runs clocked in the 1.03-1.04 range.

Left Lane: Kurt Johnson Runs 6.876/202.47, Now #2
Right Lane: Ron Krisher Runs 6.859/201.92, Now #1

Mid-1.03 60-foot times lead to the two lowest elapsed times so far, KJ with a huge speed.

Left Lane: Warren Johnson Runs 6.884/201.79, Now #5
Right Lane: Greg Anderson Runs 6.881/201.20, Now #3

There are signs inside Anderson's car with arrows, saying "This side up." He kept the shiny side up here on a good pass, just a couple ticks quicker than WJ.

Left Lane: Jim Yates Runs 6.902/200.49, Now #10
Right Lane: Jeg Coughlin Runs 6.873/200.71, Now #2

1.02 60-foot times, a pair, but Yates shook and skated around for about 200 feet, hurting his elapsed time.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink