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Funny Car is here The Top Alcohol Dragster scoreboard is here
Oct.24, 2004 Atco NJ Lucas Oil final eliminations TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER: 2) Daniel Mercier, St. Timothee, Quebec, 6.022, 249.12
def. 1) Cliff Bozzelli, Absecon, N.J., 5.465, 260.71 def. 3) Rich McPhillips, Phoenixville, Pa., 5.573, 263.92 def. Semifinal Final
Oct. 17, 2004 TAD Final elimination's from No Problem Raceway
Gene Snow has come into his own this year after dabbling in the A/Fuel class for the last decade. He has won two events and went into this final round against an absolute in contrasts. Snow, four decades of competition. Force her third season and first in A/Fuel. Gene has many firsts, is #26 of all time in the NHRA and a legend in the sport. Ashley is just starting to make a name for herself. Snow, a compete independent operation and he has been pretty well his entire career, and Force surrounded by a corporate juggernaut and a team that has spawned many of the stars of today. Leading up to the final round at No Problem, snow took out Shelly Howard, one of the biggest hitters in Division four, and the driver sitting in front of Snow in the standings. She needed the win badly, and had to win in the final round if she was to have a chance to defend the division title. Gene took her out with one of his many 5.30 laps. Snow was as consistent as I have seen any A/Fuel car at the last couple events, including his last four runs at No Problem and the last three runs at Dallas between 5.34 and 5.39, including six of them between 5.340 and 5.367. For as good as Snow has been in the last few races, Ashley has been awesom! Since her fourth event of the year, she has been one of the best drivers and has had one of the best cars. Proof of that is making the final round in 50% of her last 16 races, and winning 5 of them. This event at No Problem was her 8th final and ended up being her fifth win of the year, and third divisionally to lock up the division 4 title. Ashley left on Snow by a couple hundredth and ran a 5.352 to 5.367. National points are here as well as the scoreboard
Oct 12, 2004 Medford Oregon (after Reading results) Oct. 12, 2004 Englishtown Divisional final round (run at Reading) Oct. 12, 2004, Reading final elimination's Greg Gage Photos
Morgan's hot streak in TAD is unfortunately in the wrong
half of the year. While he has had some inconsistency in
the fall (including dnq's at Chicago and Indy) races, he
has three wins and semi final in the last six events. He
final round opponent is in exactly the same vote. Ashley
Force has four wins Six of the top eight advanced into round two, and from there, the top four qualifiers (all A/Fuel cars) were the semi final competitors. Morgan took on Art Gallant and won on both ends of the track with a 5.279 to 5.392. Ashley defeated Bill Reichert with a quick 5.26 to Reichert's game 5.325. Both drivers had .089 rts. Notable is Ashley's rt's through eliminations were .089-.189, possibly her worst performance of the season.
Here, Ashley defeated Rich McPhillips in round two Rich McPhillips, Phoenixville
PA, Precision-BAE, Left lane, (0.048) 5.474 256.60 def.
Jeff Bohr,
Oct. 9, 2004 Reading Lucas Oil Nationals qualifying (Greg Gage photos)
Marty Thacker launching hard
Ashley sat #1 again
Jeff Bohr also launched will the wheels up. Oct. 12, 2004 Medford Oregon Lucas Oil event This race was big! Just what a final divisional series race should be. It had divisional standing as well as national standing repercussions bases on the final results. Most notably for Mitch Myers and Steve Federlin. Federlin has been a top ten competitor in the national standings for four seasons including a best finish in 2002 of #3. But he has never finished atop the standings in the division. Mitch Myers had a chance (a very good chance for not only winning the division but also winning the World title) to cap off what would be considered by every player in the class, the dream season. A win here and then at Pomona in a month and it would total 718 points and cha-ching. Steve Boggs earns his money big time. He still will have earned his money based on the improvement he has made over the previous seasons. After qualifying Friday, California rookie Hillary Will lead with a solid 5.477. Only two sessions were completed instead of the scheduled three due too cool temperatures. Saturday's final round was run cool temperatures as well, with corrected air of 2000 feet, and the almost every car in the class improved. Duane Shields blasted to a 5.303/264 to shatter the track record. Mitch Myers also ran a 30, a great 5.378 at 264 also. Darren Nicholson made the biggest move in the class, from outside the field all the way to #3 with a 5.438/259. Darren is in the Brazil family dragster and that team had not run anywhere near that number before. Steve Federlin rounded out the top half with a 5.441. The bump spot was held down by Randy Johnson (5.566) in an ex-Rick Santos car. A 5.56 bump spot at probably the poorest track in the division is a credit to the quality of cars. Here is the final qualifying
Elimination's A couple interesting match-ups in round one included the Mitch Myers and Joey Severance race. Severance was last years division champ and was third in the standings but was searching for his first win of the year. He won this event last year and the win clinched the title. This was not that close on paper but Severance could certainly run a low 40 to make it close. Joey did get .04 at the tree and ran a 5.478, but it looked slow compared to Mitch's 5.304. Steve Federlin stay did not falter in his race, as he turned in the quickest BAD run of the weekend (so far), a 5.443 to easily defeat Hillary Will's tire shaking 8.90. Duane shields went 5.42 to dispatch Randy Johnson's 5.62 and Eric Morris got a break and his second round win of the year over Darren Nicholson when Nicholson red lit away a 5.61. Eric smoked the tires in his BAD but got the red light win. The semi finals were pressure packed as the two main players had to win if they were to win the division. Federlin had a daunting task, as he faced Duane Shields, who has run in the thirty's, and Myers had Eric Morris. Myers ended up with a bye when Morris could not return due to a wounded motor. Steve Federlin had a great .016 rt and ran his quickest pass of the weekend, a 5.419 to defeat Shields who slowed to a 5.77. Federlin had lane choice in the final, and a win against Myers' would clinch the division championship. A win by Myers and he was one National event win away from winning not only the division, but also the world championship. What a great final, as Federlin got a .045 jump at the
starting line and held on for a holeshot 5.481 to a 5.441
victory. The margin of victory was .005 (less than two feet).
Federlin clinches the division and moves into the top ten
nationally. Mitch will be having nightmares with his worst
light of elimination's. The good news for him is that he
has two more races still to win the World title. He needs
a win at Vegas and at Pomona to win the big show. Here is the final elimination's
Oct. 5, 2004
This was THE Top Alcohol race of the year, mostly for the performance potential and because of the Jeg's race, which has every Division represented.
The Weather and condition's at Chicago were prime for records and that was probably the problem in qualifying for the eight car Jeg's race. A few of the teams got really greedy and three of the eight (all A/Fuel cars) struggled to get down the track. Those three (potentially the three quickest in the field) ended up as the #'s 6, 7, and 8 qualifiers. Guy Kelly, in the ex-Mark Hentges TAD was #1 with a 5.38. In the first round, Kelly face TAD title contender Bill Reichert and this one was a typical A/Fuel and BAD race. The BAD left first but the A/Fuel smoked past him by about 500 feet and won with a 5.32-5.41. The Ed Schmeekle/Chris Demke race was a downer as Demke red lit and Schmeekle chattered the tires hard and ran a 5.94. Shelly Howard blasted to a 5.300/277mph victory over a pedaling Morgan Lucas who could only run a 5.73. Steve Federlin won his race against Art Gallant with a strong 5.35 (strong for a blown car), Gallant pedaled his car once and clicked it early. The semi finals saw Schmeekle upset Reichert with a 5.432 when the Bars Leaks car shook and smoked the tires, and Reichert lifted early. Shelly Howard stayed in the low 30's but Federlin could not repeat his first round numbers and Howard drove around Federlin around the 1200 foot mark for a 5.33-5.42 victory. Federlin had a great .019 rt to Howard's .093, but he fell just short. In the final, Howard made another pretty strong run, even though it was her slowest of the race, a 5.414 but Schmeekle had his engine let go at half track and it was all over. Shelly has been very strong in her first year with the A/Fuel car.
The Jeg's Allstar TAD elimination's
Final qualifying...............concluded during the first round of elimination's of the Jeg's race and Shelly Howard moved from way outside the field to the #5 spot, Bill Reichert moved into #8 and Steve Federlin ended up #10 with a 5.353. John Haley made the biggest statement for the BAD's, when he went 5.299 in the final round of qualifying on Saturday. His speed was only 250 on that run, so it probably would have been a 5.28 if he had of been under full power at the finish line. By the end of the final session the bump was.......GET THIS a 5.399!!!! The quickest bump previous was a 5.464, set at this race two years ago. This race has produced three (5.484 (2003), 5.464 (2002), 5.399 (this year) 5.479 (2003 World Finals) of the four quickest bumps ever.
Elimination's Sunday........................First round was run Sunday morning instead of the usual Saturday afternoon and that gave the qualifiers a chance to run even quicker than in qualifying. But by the end of the first round, only two blown car had gone quicker, David Wells with a 5.363 in his win over #3 Ashley Force, and Jeff Wilson who ran a 5.373 to defeat #2 Mike Gunderson. But over half of the top qualifiers (5 were ousted including the two above and #1 Mitch Myers) who wheelstood his car at half track and had to lift. In round two, Three of the four races were side by side 5.30 affairs, including two of the best blown cars in the country David Wells and Marty Thacker. That one was won by Wells,who went his season best, a 5.310 to Thacker's best of the year, a 5.352. Dave Hirata defeated Jeff Wilson 5.32-5.37 and Reichert defeated Jason Cannon 5.31-5.38. The other 1/4 final race had Shelly Howard defeat Guy Kelly 5.40-5.49.
The semi finals had one BAD and three A/Fuelers, much like the previous National event this season. David wells kept the BAD hopes up to win their third event of the year with a 5.35 win over a tire-smoking Dave Hirata. The other semi was a barn burner with Shelly Howard taking a huge .062 holeshot over Bill Reichert and running a quicker 5.290-5.311. That was a huge setback for Reichert even though he is leading the title chase, as a win in that round and a win in the final, would have almost guaranteed him a championship. He still has the upper hand but it will be alot more interesting with two nationals left to claim.
The final was set, but Howard did have a couple hun on Wells all day long and was the favorite especially after her solid .029 rt in the semis. But these races are not won on paper and this one was over on the starting line, as Howard must have been badly distracted as she left with a very bad .305 rt to Wells' ,074. Shelly was quicker with a 5.311 to David's 5.339 but it ended up over a 2/10ths margin at the stripe. Too bad for Shelly, as she could have won $10,000.00 (or $24,000.00 depending on how you read the double up criteria) if she had of won the final, as it would have been a double up bonus for winning the Jeg's race on Saturday.
Here is the bonus award statement, "As an added
bonus this year, event sponsor Jeg's High Performance will
double any Allstars winner's prize money if that racer also
wins the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals". (her
prize money would have been $7,000 for the Jeg's race and
$5,000 for the race Sunday totaling $12,000.00) Bill Reichert, Owosso MI,
Bowen-KB, Right lane, (0.075) 5.429 274.66 def. Bruce Bowler,
Denver CO, Hansen-BAE, (-0.054 foul) 5.421 257.63
Aug/Jul TAD archives are here June TAD Archives are here May TAD Archives are here. April TAD Archives are here.
For the Top TAD drivers of all time go here For the Top Tuners and Innovators go here For the quickest runs in history by TAD and TAFC go here
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2004 Lucas Oil Top Alcohol TV package 2004 Alky Zone archives 2004 TAD Zone Archives 2003 Alky Zone Archives 2004
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a
r/u and three semi final finishes in her last nine events.
Ashley would have 652 points if you went on her best 5 and
5 in the last 13 races (good enough for 3rd place). If she
in fact stays in the class for all of next year, look out
boys, we could have the first female to win the TAD world
championship. Ashley has a weekend almost as good as legend
Frank Manzo, who won two races over the weekend. Ashley
had a win and a r/u at those same two events. Morgan Lucas
stood in her way from a double up,but she was actually responsible
for the loss, not the tuner and car owner Jerry Darien.
She was just r 26/1000's slower in et a 5.298 to Lucas'
5.273, but possibly her worst light of the season (a .189rt),
ended her chance for a big payday. She was also the #1 qualifier
at both events (the rescheduled Englishtown divisional and
the Reading National). While the team was slow to find their
niche at the start of the year, Jerry has the car running
on all eight (wonder what he said to young Ashley after
seeing her RT in the final). 
Jeg's Top Alcohol Dragster Final qualifying
