2nd Qualifying Session

Saturday 2:12 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 61 degrees, relative humidity 33 percent, barometer 30.12 inches, track temperature 92 degrees. Overall conditions were much better than Friday.

 

 

Session two started off with the crowd seeing red. Brett Harris was in the least favored right lane in Big Red now sporting its "business coupe" configuration. And Howard Haight, in the east coast based Nitro Diction fueler, in the left lane.

 

With all the cameras on Harris we didn't get one burnout shot of Haight.

 

 

Haight, who passed on the first session Friday, was soft at the hit but not so with Nitro Thunder.

 

 

 

Harris had a full car on Haight by the 60's clocks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haight, several cars behind Harris, had signs of engine damage first burning up some aluminum clocking a 6.336 at 187.34.

 

 

 

 

For Harris it was a good news, bad news deal. He went #1 by a bunch with a sterling 5.692 at 251.32. The bad news was a burnt piston banged the blower which resulted in the belt tearing off an oil line (seen below hanging off right side of engine) which resulted in a lengthily clean up.

 

 

 

John Ewald and Dan Kaplan caught all the action for WDIFL from the top end crane.

 

 

Pair two featured two very different cars sporting very different Chevy engines. Adam Sorokin in the Bat Mobile is powered by a billet small block configuration and Brendan Murry working out the bugs in his Arias "hemi" BB Chevy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorokin got there first with a 6.153 at 234.25 with Murry on his tail with a 6.379 at 200.84.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The car left better than the previous round and had decent numbers to half track.

 

 

 

 

 

However, the car started to move around past half track and Rogers opted to shut off to a 6.668 at 166.38.

 

 

 

 

 

Next out on a track that was obviously much better than the previous day were Rick Williamson and Shannon Stewart.

 

 

 

 

 

Both drivers got off the line clean and had fair numbers early.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Williamson got out of the grove before half track and avoided any problems by clicking it.

 

 

 

Stewart had a decent run going but opted to shut off early to a 6.067 at 207.08. The reason for the abbreviated run was economics. As others, the Richardson/Stewart team do not have the funding or spare parts they had last year so they are trying to be easy on what equipment they do have left. In fact, this may be the only race they run in 2009.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both cars executed a decent launch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cox's late model hemi starting eating aluminum before the stripe.

 

 

Schutz had a nice clean run and really improved clocking a solid 5.902 at 253.23.

 

Cox slowed to a 6.119 at 231.36.

 

 

 

The sixth pair out were Troy Green and Brad Thompson. Neither had much luck in session one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thompson was off and on the throttle before calling it quits to a 6.871 at 159.06.

 

 

 

 

 

Green stopped the clocks with a nice 5.822 at 261.78 (top speed of qualifying) to move up to the #3 spot.

 

 

 

 

The next to last pair to shoot for the top were Jim Murphy and Mike McClennan.

 

 

 

 

 

McClennan was a tad soft and Murphy didn't have a super 60' time either but picked it up big time down track.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By half track McClennan was fighting to keep the car in his lane... but failed.

 

 

 

 

 

Murphy shut off a little early but still stopped the clocks with a very nice 5.767 at 240.77 which was good for the #2 spot at the time. In fact, for several different reasons, Jim didn't drive the car under power past the 1100' mark all weekend. McClennan coasted to a 6.523 at 156.82 which didn't count do his centerline infraction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The final pair of what was a much better Top Fuel qualifying session were Rick White and Rick McGee.

 

Both cars nailed the leave and had very nice bottom end numbers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the 60' clocks on White continued to pull away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both drivers improved their positions - White by a bunch. His 5.724 at 257.51 moved him up to the #2 hole behind Harris. McGee stopped the clocks with a 5.913 at 241.02 but it cost him an engine.

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday - Qualifying Session Three

5:38 p.m. It was cooling fast and five Top Fuel cars rolled into the lanes for the last session. With only 16 cars left running, everyone was in the show and with the weather change there was not much opportunity for most of the cars to improve their positions.

 

The first of the five was Troy Green and he had the track all to himself.

 

The car had a decent leave but was a tad slower on the 60' time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although it wound be the best run of the session, Green's 5.933 at 252.38 was a tenth shower than the previous session so he ended up in the #4 hole for eliminations on Sunday.

 

 

 

Next out was Brad Thompson who was still shaking down his new car and Mike McClennan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

McClennan's Mike Fuller hemi came unglued at the 1000' mark and burned far into the shut down area. This was ugly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oil from McClennan's engine was so bad that it covered Thompson in the other lane leaving both drivers flying blind.

 

 

Like I said, this was ugly. Thompson literally came to a stop on McClennan's chutes. By his own account, he missed running into the back of the blue car by about three feet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorokin put the Batmobile into the top half of the field with a 6.063 at 232.13 on what looked to be an easy run.

 

 

 

Final Top Fuel Qualifying after 3rd Session

1 - Brett Harris 5.692 @ 251.32 2 - Rick White 5.724 @ 257.51 3 - Jim Murphy 5.767 @ 240.77 4 - Troy Green 5.822 @ 261.78 5 - Denver Schutz 5.902 @ 253.23 6 - Rick McGee 5.913 @ 241.02 7 - Mike McClennan 6.021 @ 219.51 8 - Adam Sorokin 6.063 @ 232.13

9 - Shannon Stuart  6.067 @ 207.08 10 - Terry Cox 6.119 @ 231.36 11 - Brad Thompson 6.269 @ 190.35 12 - Howard Haight 6.336 @ 187.34 13 - Brendan Murry 6.379 @ 200.84 14 - Rick Williamson 6.510 @ 164.41 15 - Rick Rogers 6.668 @ 166.38 16 - Mark Malde 10.880 @ 70.93

 

 

Page 1 - Session One of Qualifying

Page 3 - Round One of Top Fuel

Page 4 - Round Two thru Final

Page 5 - Funny Car Fever

Page 6 - Other Winners - Misc. Photos