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presented by
Sept. 13, 2003 Reading Pennsylvania, Lucas Oil Nationals Part I (Pictures from the first weekend are here) Tony Schumacher runs an awesome 4.465/328 mph in Top Fuel last night at 11:15 pm under the nights for the quickest Top Fuel pass in history. WOOOWWW! In TAFC Manzo runs a great 5.58 and Bucky shakes the tires in the only hit so far. Mike Gunderson runs the fastest Top Alcohol Dragster pass in history as well, as he goes 280mph in his A/ Fuel Dragster. That is 12 mph faster than any BAD and 2mph faster than the fastest A/F pass previously. He held that number as well. In Super Stock, Mike Smith made up for his dismal showing at Indy with a great 8.69 in qualifying and then an even better 8.65 in the first round. Barton and Hess ran in the 8.70s and low 8.80's in the first round. Here is qualifying for the top 6 "AA" carrs at Reading. More later today if the current rains stops. 1 312 SS/AA Mike Smith, Sandyville WV, '68 Barracuda
8.699 10.00 -1.301
Scott Kalitta ran a great 4.55 in qualifying and had a 4.52 in round one before losing in the second round
Josh Starcher was a non qualifer this weekend
Sept. 29, 2003 Chicago Carquest Nationals Route 66 Raceway. (photos by Guy Van Syckle and are copyright speedzonemagazine.com 2003) Complete Top Fuel photo page is here and funny car is here. What a weekend at Joliet for
the Fall event. Under the usual cool Sept. conditions the track was
a hotbed for records and personal bests. And last count the TF drivers
had set and reset track et and speed records almost at will and believe it or not three drivers a one leg of the et record at the same time. Unfortunately no one could back up their times. The speed mark was set though by Doug Kalitta at he went 333.00 to hold the new benchmark. He also was the quickest with an unreal 4.428 et. His 4.478 back-up run was just 6/1000ths to slow. Cory Mac also had a leg up on the record as did Tony Schumacher as both those guys went 4.46. The winner of the event was Kenny Bernstein (above) as he defeated Larry Dixon in the final round. Bernstein also ran in the 4.40's during eliminations. Eight drivers in the class ran personal bests including two ladies Shirley Muldowney (4.57) and the world's quickest lady Rhonda Hartman-Smith (4.52). Part timers Luigi Novelli and Mike Strasberg laid down a 4.66 and 4.62 respectively.
In Funny Car, It was a weekend
of team races as all four multi car teams had their (Tony did a huge wheelstand in the final qualifying session) cars on the same side of the
ladder. This meant a couple great match-ups of side by side races
and a couple of obvious scripted results. Most notably, was Tony Pedregon
who got the win over a fluid leaking and shut off Phil Burkhart. He
retook the points lead back from Whit Bazemore (below), who
lost in round one. Tony defeated both Gary Densham (round two) and
John Force (round three) when the
Shirley went three rounds and ran a career best 4.57 twice
Sept 10th Reading Pennsylvania, Lucas Oil Nationals is in the Oct NHRA Zone due to the rescheduling of the race.
Sept. 8, 2003 (August archives are here) Indy! (Photos highlight pages are here are courtesy Guy Van Syckle and are copyright speedzonemagazine.com 2003) The week later US Nationals did
not loose any of its drama due to the rescheduling. Top Fuel and Funny
car ended up with record fields, and lots of drama on and off the
track. Funny Car was anything but funny, as Tony Pedregon defeated
his boss Photos highlights are here Top Fuel -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Funny Car -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pro Stock -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pro Stock Bike
July and Aug archives here June Archives here May archives are here
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May archives are here June archives are here July and Aug archives here
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quicker
car (not Tony) was put into the bumpier right lane. To be fair, both
lanes were equally quick, but the bump in the right lane was not the
favorite in most cases. Gary Scelzi set the new speed mark with a
best of 329.13. Gary went to the semis where he lost to Burkhart.
The Worsham CSK team ran very hard against each other in round two
when Cory Lee red lit by 1/100 but ran hard to the end against Burkhart.
The fastest side by side FC race ever happened in round two when Scelzi
defeated Del Worsham 4.73 to 4.76
Pro
Stock saw Jeg Couglin (right) defeat Greg Anderson in the final
when Greg red lit with a .001 red. The two were the class of the field
as they both ran in the low 6.70's all day long. Kurt Johnson went
out in round two against Jeggie. Warren Johnson also lost in round
two on a huge holeshot by Bruce Allen. Larry Morgan seems to have
his Dodge running well as he went to the semi finals and ran mid 6.70s
all weekend.
John
Force in the Big Bud Shoot-out. He did not manage the double up though
as all the top contenders went out in the early rounds. The record
bump spot of a 4.87 and a gap of justover a tenth from first to sixteenth
meant that any one could win this event. And it ended up to be two
guys on the bottom half of the ladder. #15 qualifier Tim Wilkerson
got his second ever win as he defeated #9 Johnny Gray 4.84 - 4.90.
In Top Fuel, fans also witnessed a record bump as 25 cars battled
for the 4.683 final bump. The race was highlighted for a number of
reasons including Shirley Muldowney's last US Nationals, an event
where she unfortunately failed to qualify with her best run being
a 4.767. "Cha Cha's" failed interview(s) on the top end
by "Crash Glady's" were big talk in the pits. There was
also a rumor of an altercation between her and Scott Geoffrion. "Big"
also failed to make the 5.60 bump. His best was a 4.776. Rookie Chris
Vandergriff made headlines as well, but it was not good, as he suffered
a spectacular blow-over during qualifying. He was no seriously injured
in the accident. A few other notables made noise as well, as Tim Gibson
attempted to qualify for the first time in a couple years, this time
driving the "George Thorogood" sponsored Top Fuel car. His
4.700 put him in the #17 spot. David Baca made the biggest noise overall
with a career best 4.499. Scott Kalitta made his presence known as
well with a 4.502 in his return. For 2004, the Kalitta clan has hired
Rahn Tobler as co-crew chief on Scott's car. Will we see 
"Heart
like a Wheel" Part Deux in the works? Oh ya, the winner of the
race was Tony Schumacher who defeated Darrell Russell in the "Amato"
car. Tony parlayed 8 of 9 runs in the 4.50's or better including a
dominant 4.498 in the final. Can he make a run in the final 6 events
to catch Doug Kalitta Highly unlikely, but if he keeps up the pace
from this past weekend, the rest of the teams better look out in 2004.
Pro Stock did not have near the drama of the two nitro classes
did except if you count the fact that 29 cars that entered the class
did not qualify and 16 of them were less than 3/100ths from the bump
spot. Greg Anderson got his 8th win of the season as he defeated his
closest rival Kurt Johnson when Kurt red lit. The win puts Anderson
176 points ahead of Johnson. The two of them are over 250 points up
on third place Jeg Coughlin. Rumors abound that Don Schumacher will
field a Pro Stock team in 2004 and Anderson was one that was mentioned.
That was denied by the Anderson group. Look for "Shoe" to
have one or 
two
cars next year, giving him a stable of pro cars and bikes unprecedented
in the history of Drag Racing. Pro Stock Bike winner was Reggie
Showers. He defeated Shawn Gann in the final round. He also won the
"Bike Klash" run last weekend. Here is the point standings
following the US Nationals: