Sun, 9 Jun 2002, 03:13 PM Top Fuel Round 2 Eliminations

By Larry Sullivan

GRAND BEND, Ont. - Results of round 2 eliminations in Top Fuel at the Hooters IHRA Drag Racing Series, Third annual Mopar Performance Parts Canadian Nationals presented by Castrol:

Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   2 Bruce Litton        4.796 276.75  Q    3 Paul Romine         4.858 297.22
   (J TODD      ) 0.591  4.807 299.20  E1   (R DEAN      ) 0.541  4.821 290.32
                  0.498  5.544 227.21  E2 *****WINNER***** 0.476  5.566 249.16

2:54 PM This quickly turned into a pedaling contest, both cars chattering the tires and then going up in smoke. Both drivers pedaled, and pedaled, and pedaled, the race obscured by tire smoke. When the smoke cleared, the win light was on in Romine's lane, even though his tire tracks showed his crooked path was more crooked than Litton's, the twin tracks going out toward the centerline, back to the right edge of the groove, back toward the centerline again, and back to the right again. How close was it? Here are the incremental margins (negative means Romine was behind): 60ft(0.052), 330ft(0.001), 660ft(-0.081), 990ft(-0.108). MOV: 0.0003 seconds (approximately 1 inches).

Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   1 Clay Millican       4.615 317.23  Q    4 Louie Allison       4.960 288.09
   (V FANNING   ) 0.493  4.780 303.43  E1   (J SIPPLE    ) 0.548  5.591 231.36
 *****WINNER***** 0.521  4.814 270.43  E2                  0.000 No Data

Allison was a no-show and Millican's team used this pass as a tuning pass for the final round. Millican will have lane choice against Romine, the car cleanly down the track on a relatively soft run, only running 252 mph at half track.