Sun, 31 Oct 2004, 06:03 PM Top Fuel Round 3 Eliminations

By Rick Green

LAS VEGAS - Results of round 3 eliminations in Top Fuel at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, Fourth annual ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    2 Doug Kalitta                           10 Rhonda Hartman-Smith
E3   ****WINNER****  0.136  4.589 327.43                     0.104  4.631 318.02
 Prior rounds:
E2    (D Herbert   ) 0.048  4.559 329.75      (T Schumacher) 0.103  4.678 313.88
E1    (G Ormsby Jr ) 0.077  4.563 328.14      (D Grubnic   ) 0.078  4.669 316.82
 Qualified:             #2  4.499 330.47                       #14  4.670 318.39

Weather conditions: air temperature 75 degrees, relative humidity 33 percent, barometer 27.91 inches, adjusted altitude 3,602 feet, track temperature 84 degrees.

Hartman-Smith is out of the gate first and has the lead until just past 1000 feet when Kalitta was able to chase her down. Doug Kalitta's incremental times: 60ft-0.877 sec., 330ft-2.212, 660ft-3.135/273.50mph, 1,000ft-3.913

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  835 Andrew Cowin                          743 Morgan Lucas
E3                   0.101  4.603 317.42     ****WINNER****  0.073  4.630 311.13
 Prior rounds:
E2    (C McClenatha) 0.083  4.607 309.56      (S Kalitta   ) 0.020  4.538 324.59
E1    (D Baca      ) 0.073  4.694 296.24      (L Dixon     ) 0.079  4.573 320.58
 Qualified:            #13  4.640 315.27                        #9  4.579 317.79

Lucas with the starting line advantage and just enough power to hold on for hole shot win. Apparently Lucas used up an engine on the top end as the Safety Safari rolls to clean it up. That is Lucas' first oil down. Morgan Lucas' MOV: 0.0012 seconds (approximately 7 inches).

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink