Sat, 13 Nov 2004, 05:55 PM Top Alcohol Funny Car Round 1 Eliminations

By Darryl Jackman

POMONA, Calif. - Results of round 1 eliminations in Top Alcohol Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 40th annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    8 Doug Gordon                           714 Dennis Taylor
E1   ****WINNER****  0.071  5.697 250.13                     0.052  5.720 249.95
 Qualified:             #8  5.677 251.81                        #9  5.680 249.26

2:14 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 66 degrees, relative humidity 62 percent, barometer 28.86 inches, adjusted altitude 2,001 feet, track temperature 93 degrees.

First pair out reminds me of a Div-7 event. Most any weekend this matchup could occur. Taylor puts .02 on Gordon at the hit but Gordon comes closer to repeating his qualifying number. With that Gordon gets a huge nineteen foot win.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  312 Danny Townsend                         74 Bret Williamson
E1   ****WINNER****  0.029  5.701 251.72                     0.210  5.671 254.90
 Qualified:             #7  5.674 253.52                       #10  5.685 247.93

Williamson must have gotten distracted at the line as the light was just about the worst I've seen in awhile. Top make it look even worse Townsend just chopped the tree down. Williamson was quicker but the win goes to Townsend.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    5 Jay Payne                             739 Hannes Wernhart
E1   ****WINNER****  0.077  5.634 253.85                     0.109  5.660 251.95
 Qualified:             #1  5.557 256.55                       #16  5.743 238.85

Payne took over the top spot as the last car down in qualifying last night. Well, Wernhart has nothing to be embarrassed about here. With a better light he'd have been right there. The biggest problem Wernhart had was getting the car stopped. I didn't see if he got the chutes out late or he just ran out of room but he ran the nose of the car into the sand pretty hard. It's going to take a few minutes to excavate the car.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  703 Mark Woznichak                         63 Hank Coolidge
E1   ****WINNER****  0.092  5.676 253.61                    -0.127  5.719 252.76
 Qualified:             #3  5.633 253.42                       #14  5.712 251.58

Wernhart's car is out of the kitty litter and we're back under steam. Coolidge needed a miracle so he left early and prayed that the red wouldn't come on. Not answered. The red bulb went on and then he BARELY managed to slew the car to a stop before the found the beach. The 'Woz' took the win and watched as Coolidge went sailing by him. Woznichak sets low ET of the round to this point.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
    2 Bucky Austin                            9 Steve Gasparrelli
E1                         No Time           ****WINNER****  0.323  5.664 255.34
 Qualified:             #4  5.656 256.75                       #13  5.711 253.09

Austin came up and lighted the prestage bulb and quickly rolled forward and lighted the stage light. Problem for him was that he kept right on rolling and by the time the tree came down he was three feet over the line. No time and Gasparrelli will get the automatic win.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
 6515 Brian Hough                            65 Clint Thompson
E1   ****WINNER****  0.079  5.656 252.38                     0.060  5.744 249.16
 Qualified:             #6  5.673 252.47                       #11  5.691 249.95

This time it's Hough that sets low ET for the round and moves to round two.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  727 Ron August Jr                          78 Mert Littlefield
E1   ****WINNER****  0.107  5.588 258.22                     0.106  7.147 128.18
 Qualified:             #5  5.663 257.04                       #12  5.692 247.79

Step right up Mr. August! He's the first into the fifties in eliminations and takes a win. Neither driver had a great light and Littlefield was really busy keeping the car in his own lane after half track.

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
 7306 Jeff Carroll                           79 John Weaver
E1                   0.068 No Time           ****WINNER****  0.058  5.753 246.39
 Qualified:            #15  5.742 245.14                       #17  5.765 245.67

Weaver is in as an alternate as Marc White and Randy Goodwin suffered a blackened crank on their last qualifying pass on Friday evening. The Weavers bring four generations to the line every time they come up. Whoops! Carroll punts the half track reflectors into Weavers lane and his 5.849/206.39 is DQd. Round 2 will see Payne with lane choice against Gordon; August with choice against Gasparrelli; Townsend with choice over Weaver and Hough with choice over Woznichak.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink