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Fri, 18 Mar 2005, 01:13 PM

Competition Eliminator Qualifying Notes, Session #1

By Larry Sullivan

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Notes from round 1 qualifying in Competition Eliminator at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 36th annual MAC Tools NHRA Gatornationals listing lane, driver name, elapsed time, top speed, amount over/under index, and position in order following run, class and class index:

Left Lane: Rod Dorsey No Time, Now #1 H/SMA Index: 9.78
Right Lane: Jerry Hemmingson No Time, Now #2 B/A Index: 7.74

11:53 a.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 54 degrees, relative humidity 60 percent, barometer 29.87 inches, adjusted altitude -179 feet, track temperature 58 degrees.
Moisture, cold, cloudy, Super Stock oildowns, low track temperature - all these have contributed to multiple delays this morning, putting the racing about hours behind schedule. Qualifying sessions for Top Alcohol and Pro Modified have already been scrubbed. Following the final pair of Super Stock cars, the Safety Safari swept, dragged, and jet dried the track, trying to improve the traction for thehigh-horsepower-to-weight Competition Eliminator cars. We should find out fairly early in this session if their efforts have paid off because some very strong cars are near the head of the staging lanes.

Well, we didn't get very far before there were problems. Hemmingson's B/Altered Cavalier got out of the groove near half track,hit the the right hand wall, then crossing the centerline, hitting the left-hand wall hard. He crossed ahead of Dorsey, who finished his run in the right lane to avoid Hemmingson's car. Hemmingson was reported to be okay after the accident.

Left Lane: Bruno Massel Runs 13.612/70.20/6.152, Now #2 BB/AT Index: 7.46
Right Lane: Jacklyn Gebhardt Runs 12.127/62.76/4.187, Now #1 C/ED Index: 7.94

Massel's car broke traction and shook hard, then left a trail of fluid. Gebhardt's car was very loose, but she kept it between the lines.

Left Lane: Charlie Westcott Jr Runs 9.251/134.79/-0.529, Now #1 H/SMA Index: 9.78
Right Lane: Don Ksiezyk Runs 10.359/99.00/2.949, Now #2 A/AA Index: 7.41

12:21 p.m. Okay, the fluid is cleaned up, let's try again. Ksiezyk's car spun the tires and he got out of the throttle to get it hooked up. Westcott made a normal-looking run, but well off his usual pace.

Left Lane: Bert Dawson Runs 10.947/80.27/2.417, Now #3 B/EA Index: 8.53
Right Lane: Keith Roberts Runs 10.610/84.75/2.080, Now #2 C/EA Index: 8.53

Both cars were very loose about 300 feet out.

Left Lane: Greg Kamplain Runs 10.503/99.48/2.563, Now #5 C/ED Index: 7.94
Right Lane: Mike Saye Runs 8.759/152.85/-0.661, Now #1 H/A Index: 9.42

Low horsepower to weight = good run. Kamplain's car was loose and he lifted.

Left Lane: Steve Ambrose Runs 7.986/161.20/-0.464, Now #3 J/AA Index: 8.45
Right Lane: Mike Schaefer Runs 8.676/123.49/0.656, Now #4 B/AP Index: 8.02

Ambrose's car was very twitchy, but the veteran driver did a nice job of keeping it under control. Scahefer's car was alos very loose.

Left Lane: Mark Linebarrier Runs 8.480/112.64/0.740, Now #6 B/A Index: 7.74
Right Lane: Tim Timmerman Runs 8.405/127.75/-0.125, Now #4 B/EA Index: 8.53

Linebarrier's car moved to the right, got near the centerline, and he lifted. Timmerman made a clean pass.

Left Lane: Donald Eberly Runs 8.161/164.05/-0.589, Now #2 C/EA Index: 8.75
Right Lane: Ralph Hope Runs 10.135/92.03/1.595, Now #8 J/A Index: 8.54

Hope's car was moving around a lot and he lifted. Eberly made a good-looking run.

Left Lane: Tony Stephenson Runs 7.934/147.32/-0.596, Now #2 B/EA Index: 8.53
Right Lane: David Eaton Runs 10.274/117.69/2.754, Now #13 A/AP Index: 7.52

Eaton shook and slowed. He got back in it and fishtailed, lifting again. Stephenson made a good pASS.

Left Lane: Robert Bailey Runs 6.931/195.27/-0.359, Now #6 A/ED Index: 7.29
Right Lane: John Eyer Runs 7.725/170.58/-0.215, Now #7 C/ED Index: 7.94

Bailey did his burnout and a dry-hop, looking for traction. He got off the line okay, but was probably looking for more from the run.

Left Lane: Jonathan Aloisio Runs 10.231/90.87/1.461, Now #11 B/SM Index: 8.77
Right Lane: Frank Affronti Runs 13.906/60.47/5.906, Now #19 C/A Index: 8.00

Affronti's car headed for the wall and he had to lift. Aloisio's run looked okay from here, but he also lifted before half track.

Left Lane: Bo Nickens Runs 7.285/188.56/-0.735, Now #1 B/AP Index: 8.02
Right Lane: Pete Hanratty Runs 7.648/142.15/0.358, Now #10 A/ED Index: 7.29

"Bo knows drag racing." Hanratty had traction problems on the launch.

Left Lane: Glen Treadwell Runs 8.372/150.32/-0.648, Now #12 E/ED Index: 9.02
Right Lane: David Allen Runs 8.247/163.78/-0.533, Now #5 F/A Index: 8.78

Allen's four-banger had no problems. Treadwell's run looked okay

Left Lane: Glen Treadwell Runs 8.372/150.32/-0.648, Now #3 E/ED Index: 9.02
Right Lane: David Allen Runs 8.247/163.78/-0.533, Now #6 F/A Index: 8.78

Two good runs, a nice change.

Left Lane: Pat Ross Sr. Runs 8.172/165.22/-0.608, Now #4 F/A Index: 8.78
Right Lane: Michael Hardee Runs 11.261/83.18/2.021, Now #18 E/SMA Index: 9.24

hardee had traction problems early in the run.

Left Lane: Jim Kimbrough Runs 10.351/92.55/2.411, Now #21 C/ED Index: 7.94
Right Lane: Allen Stanfield Runs 9.180/147.17/-0.600, Now #5 H/SM Index: 9.78

Kimbrough spun the tires on the launch.

Left Lane: Rob Kropfeld Runs 6.693/203.89/-0.417, Now #12 A/D Index: 7.11
Right Lane: John Mischuch Runs 8.059/152.02/-0.471, Now #10 B/EA Index: 8.53

Kropfeld's dragster was loose early in the run. So was Mischuch's Corvette. Both appeared to smooth things out, but Mischuch's car started to fishtail on the top end and he almost took out the finish line markers. He avoided them, but the car continued to fishtail and he put the chute out just in time to miss the right wall. The car then to the left and he managed to spin it out without hitting the left wall. Since all the action was past the finish line, the run was legal.

Left Lane: George Supinski Jr. Runs 8.147/165.07/-0.553, Now #8 B/T Index: 8.70
Right Lane: Larry Pritchett Runs 8.304/141.28/-0.466, Now #12 B/SM Index: 8.77

12:54 p.m. Back to racing. Looks like the teams at the back of the line are getting the track figured out.

Left Lane: Gary Merrick Runs 7.501/174.62/-0.499, Now #11 D/ED Index: 8.00
Right Lane: Wayne Hutton Runs 7.765/140.40/0.025, Now #19 B/A Index: 7.74

Nice pass by Merrick. Hutton appeared to be on a good pass, but slowed on the top end, the reason not evident.

Left Lane: Gary Wisecarver Runs 9.060/148.68/-0.720, Now #2 H/SM Index: 9.78
Right Lane: Terry Smith Runs 8.378/158.33/-0.612, Now #5 D/EA Index: 8.99

Smith did a big wheelie on the launch and banged te front wheels down, so he could have been even quicker. Huge run by Wisecarver, but he couldn't catch Bo.

Left Lane: Cliff Agar Runs 8.047/167.34/-0.483, Now #14 C/EA Index: 8.53
Right Lane: David Rampy Runs 7.780/173.77/-0.190, Now #21 A/EA Index: 7.97

Smith's car left something on the lane, so there was a brief delay before this pair ran. Rampy's car made a hard move toward the wall on the launch.

Left Lane: Fred Allen Runs 8.349/165.50/0.839, Now #28 B/ED Index: 7.51
Right Lane: Brad Zaskowski Runs 9.066/148.41/-0.714, Now #3 H/SM Index: 9.78

Allen's high-horsepower car made a hard move to the right on the launch and he had to pedal it. Zaskowski's low-horsepower car had no problems and moved right up near the top.

Left Lane: Frank Aragona Jr Runs 8.939/149.87/-0.641, Now #6 G/ED Index: 9.58

Aragona crashed his Bantam altered in the test and tune session prior to the Division 2 Lucas Oil race two weeks ago, so he's running the full-bodied version. Nice run to close out the session.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink