August 3, 2004 Infineon Raceways, Sonoma California

Tim Wilkerson won at Infineon and moved into 7th place.

Funny Car------------ The floppers got off easy at Sonoma, as they did not half to deal with a wing adjustment, they only had to try and fine tune the 85% change. John Force certainly had it figured out, so did Tony Pedregon in qualifying, as Force and Tony P. were the only cars to run a four in round one. In the second session early Friday evening, the final three pair showed how it's done, as first Gary Scelzi nailed #1 with a 4.904, then Tony Pedregon with brother Cruz along beside blasted their way to 4.886 and 4.903 respectively. The final pairing saw John Force and Time Wilkerson match up and they both hit the 80 zone, with Force rocketing to a weekend best 4.823 and Wilkerson running a 4.899 Those five runs were not improved on in Saturday's two sessions, and the top eight were set except for Eric Medlen, who moved to #7 with a 4.914 in Saturday's first round. Whit Bazemore (#6) and Gary Densham (#8) were the others in the top half. The biggest news from Sonoma was the appearance of Dale Pulde (right) in Funny Car for the first time in a long while. He actually qualified in the #16 spot, but due to him having to renew his licence, his qualifying laps had to be over 280 mph (licencing requirement), but he came up 6 1/2mph short.

Force owned elimination's on Sunday except for the final round, as he ran 4.94, 4.89 and 4.85 on his way to the final. His victims were Bob Bode, teammate Gary Densham (who ran a 4.82 in round one and then smoked 'em against Force), and Gary Scelzi in the semis. On the other side of the ladder, Tim Wilkerson was not as dominant, but still got the job done, defeating Jerry Toliver,Whit Bazemore and Tony Pedregon before matching up with Force. The final was over at the starting line when Force lit up the red light, going .034 red and handing the win to Wilkerson who trucked on through to a slightly off pace 5.08/282. Wilkerson's win put him up one place in the standings to 7th and the runner-up by Force extended his lead over the new second place driver Whit Bazemore. Del Worsham dropped down to third place.

Funny Car qualifying

Top Fuel ----------Sonoma was the last race on the western swing and the Top Fuel Dragsters were welcomed to Infineon Raceway with more rule changes. After working on the new nitro percentage tune-up at Pacific Raceway the weekend prior the NHRA implemented a rear wing downforce allowance that would keep the down force angle to 0 degrees with I believe a 2 degree variant. The TF cars performed okay at Seattle, given the extreme hot conditions and also trying to navigate a new surface. While there was no 4.50 passes at Pacific the side by side racing was pretty good and the event had very little in the way of major delays. A success by most accounts if the purists could get around not seeing 4.40's or 4.50's or if you could ignore the difference in the sound the cars made under the new 85%. Arriving at Sonoma, the teams were told you had to have your wing set at 0 degrees, in a further effort to control the speeds they are attaining. Favorable weather would give the teams a fair test of the new rules, and the teams and rules seemed to have pasted with flying colors. In Qualifying the Kalitta team (the R&D member) seemed to get the rules figured out in short order. David Grubnic ran a great 4.63 right off the trailer to be the only driver in the 4.60's after one session. In round two run in the early evening, Doug Kalitta ripped off a solid 4.574 @323 mph (the first 4.50 pass under the new rules) . Team mate Dave Grubnic was even better to 1000 feet as based on his numbers to the second last timer he would of run around a 4.515 (give or take a couple thou). But the blast only lasted to 1200 feet and his et was 4.579 @ only 279.

By the time qualifying was done Saturday the top half was all in the 4.60's or better and the #15 qualifier was a respectable 4.786. Steve Chrisman was on the bump with his career best 5.04 (running what is essentially 1990's equipment).

Top Fuel Qualifying results:

Sunday Eliminations:

The Kalitta team continued their run in elimination's, as both Doug Kalitta and David Grubnic romped through elimination's without much of a challenge even when they had an off run. They ran 4.60 and 4.57 respectively in round one and then 4.63 and 4.56 in the 1/4's. The semi finals were not great efforts but their opponents, Tony Schumacher against Kalitta and Brandon Bernstien vs Grubnic both had more problems, as they smoked the tires early in the run and could not recover. The final round should have been Grubnic's first victory based on his performances on Sunday but, Doug (whether is was team orders or not) has the best car and ran 4.67 in what was the hottest conditions of the weekend. David Grubnic blazed the tires hard and was out of it by half track. The win brought Doug to within 66 points of leader Scott Kalitta. Grubnic moved in front of his other team member Scott Kalitta, into 4th place.

Round by round recap

Doug Herbert, Cherryville NC, McKinney-BAE, Right lane, (0.095) 4.697 317.19 def. Cory
McClenathan, Anaheim CA, McKinney-BAE, (0.006) NT-Left Before Tree

David Baca, Brentwood CA, McKinney-BAE, Left lane, (0.175) 4.613 314.39 def. Brady Kalivoda,
Seattle WA, Don Long-BAE, (0.066) 4.841 306.95

Larry Dixon, Indianapolis IN, McKinney-KB, Right lane, (0.160) 4.973 311.56 def. John Smith,
Williamston SC, McKinney-BAE, (0.231) 5.996 237.34

Tony Schumacher, Mt. Prospect IL, Hadman-TFX, Right lane, (0.099) 4.573 324.59 def. Scott Weis,
Ashland VA, Attac-TFX, (0.108) 4.626 310.70

Rhonda Hartman-Smith, Williamston SC, McKinney-BAE, Left lane, (0.088) 4.763 311.13 def. Scott
Kalitta, Ypsilanti MI, McKinney-TFX, (0.112) 7.972 95.84

Brandon Bernstein, Lake Forest CA, McKinney-TFX, Right lane, (0.109) 4.604 319.75 def. Bob
Vandergriff, Alpharetta GA, McKinney-BAE, (0.106) 6.168 142.26

David Grubnic, Ennis MT, McKinney-TFX, Right lane, (0.079) 4.567 323.81 def. Mitch King,
Galveston TX, Hadman-BAE, (-0.277 foul) 4.960 238.81

Doug Kalitta, Ann Arbor MI, McKinney-TFX, Right lane, (0.112) 4.607 324.59 def. Steven Chrisman,
Anaheim CA, Hadman-TFX, (0.169) 10.889 71.05

Round 2:

D Kalitta, Right lane, (0.069) 4.631 321.88 def. D Herbert, (0.088) 4.819 282.13

B Bernstein, Right lane, (0.087) 4.619 318.32 def. L Dixon, (0.108) 4.664 309.06

T Schumacher, Right lane, (0.094) 4.576 325.85 def. R Hartman-Smith, (0.125) 4.739 307.44

D Grubnic, Right lane, (0.109) 4.578 322.81 def. D Baca, (0.127) 6.096 139.85

Round 3:

D Grubnic, Right lane, (0.078) 5.181 209.85 def. B Bernstein, (0.137) 6.178 149.86

D Kalitta, Left lane, (0.075) 4.842 278.81 def. T Schumacher, (0.103) 5.696 185.46

Round 4:

D Kalitta, Right lane, (0.114) 4.678 315.05 def. D Grubnic, (0.101) 9.752 86.37

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