2012 NHRA Winternationals Thursday Qualifying
POMONA,
Calif. – Jack Beckman raced to the qualifying lead in Funny Car
Thursday at the 52nd annual O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals
presented by Super Start Batteries at historic Auto Club Raceway at
Pomona.
Morgan
Lucas (Top Fuel) and Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) also were qualifying
leaders at the 2012 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season-opener.
Beckman
drove his Valvoline NextGen Dodge Charger to the provisional No. 1 spot
with a 4.139 second pass at 308.14 mph to top the ultra-competitive
Funny Car category. If Beckman holds on to the top spot it will be the
fifth of his career and second at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
“The
most important thing is if we can go down the track and get good
computer data, we can pick away at it from there,” Beckman said. “If you
go out there and smoke the tires, you don’t know how much you missed it
by. We all know that 4.13 is not going to hold, but we feel we have as
good a shot of stepping up as any other car out there.”
Courtney
Force made her first official run in NHRA Funny Car competition in her
Traxxas Ford Mustang with a 4.210 second pass at 303.16 mph, which was
good enough for sixth in the lineup. Courtney will race alongside her
father and Funny Car legend 15-time world champ, John Force, for the
second round of qualifying of the NHRA season-opener.
Defending
Top Fuel event winner Morgan Lucas drove his GEICO/Lucas Oil dragster
to the top of the pack with his pass of 3.832 seconds at 320.28 mph
during Thursday’s qualifying efforts.
“The
weather conditions today were pretty similar to what we had in testing,
so our team has a lot of confidence in this range,” Lucas said.
“Hopefully Sunday is the same, but I know we’re expecting cooler
conditions Saturday, so you never know what’s going to happen, but
hopefully we can keep running along with the big guys.”
In
Pro Stock, Edwards will try to secure his 41st No. 1 of his career and
fifth at this track with his performance of 6.545 seconds at 211.86 mph
in his Penhall/K&N/Interstate Pontiac GXP.
“It
feels really, really good,” Edwards said. “When you start off a new
season, you never know what to expect, and we got off to a great start.
It was a great run. My guys did a phenomenal job. We just made one of
the nicest runs we’ve made in Pomona in a long time, so it’s a great
start for us. Hopefully, we can build on this tomorrow and see what
happens.”
Qualifying
continues Friday, Feb. 10 at 1:30 p.m. followed by the final two
qualifying sessions on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 11 a.m. and 1:45 p.m.
Eliminations begin Sunday at 11 a.m.
POMONA,
Calif. -- Thursday's results after the first of four rounds of
qualifying for the 52nd annual O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals presented
by Super Start Batteries at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, first of 23
events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. Qualifying will
continue Friday for Sunday's final eliminations.
Top
Fuel -- 1. Morgan Lucas, 3.832 seconds, 320.28 mph; 2. Tony Schumacher,
3.838, 320.58; 3. Shawn Langdon, 3.857, 319.29; 4. Steve Torrence,
3.857, 318.39; 5. Brandon Bernstein, 3.865, 314.90; 6. Spencer Massey,
3.866, 320.20; 7. Khalid alBalooshi, 3.873, 318.47; 8. Clay Millican,
3.884, 309.34; 9. Doug Kalitta, 3.887, 314.53; 10. Bob Vandergriff,
3.889, 316.01; 11. Cory McClenathan, 3.968, 310.13; 12. Terry McMillen,
4.194, 233.60.
Not
Qualified: 13. Steven Chrisman, 4.686, 165.54; 14. David Grubnic,
5.413, 122.03; 15. Rod Fuller, 5.676, 114.01; 16. Antron Brown, 6.615,
96.45; 17. Steve Faria, 8.662, 65.92; 18. Troy Buff, broke.
Funny
Car -- 1. Jack Beckman, Dodge Charger, 4.139, 308.14; 2. Bob Tasca III,
Ford Mustang, 4.150, 307.37; 3. Johnny Gray, Charger, 4.158, 307.23; 4.
Matt Hagan, Charger, 4.177, 307.23; 5. John Force, Mustang, 4.192,
302.89; 6. Courtney Force, Mustang, 4.210, 303.16; 7. Bob Bode, Chevy
Impala SS, 4.244, 295.08; 8. Tony Pedregon, Impala SS, 4.253, 288.33; 9.
Cruz Pedregon, Toyota Solara, 4.433, 207.75; 10. Alexis DeJoria,
Solara, 4.438, 211.00; 11. Jim Head, Solara, 5.021, 163.91; 12. Todd
Lesenko, Impala SS, 5.133, 152.45.
Not
Qualified: 13. Ron Capps, 5.850, 117.62; 14. Jeff Arend, 7.551, 87.60;
15. Mike Neff, 7.594, 85.48; 16. Tim Wilkerson, 7.761, 84.74; 17. James
Day, 8.823, 78.29; 18. Jack Wyatt, broke.
Pro
Stock -- 1. Mike Edwards, Pontiac GXP, 6.545, 211.86; 2. Ronnie
Humphrey, GXP, 6.561, 211.39; 3. Vincent Nobile, Dodge Avenger, 6.574,
210.97; 4. Allen Johnson, Avenger, 6.580, 211.23; 5. Shane Gray, GXP,
6.584, 209.95; 6. Rodger Brogdon, GXP, 6.594, 209.92; 7. Ron Krisher,
GXP, 6.595, 210.60; 8. Greg Anderson, GXP, 6.600, 211.49; 9. Kurt
Johnson, GXP, 6.620, 209.17; 10. Greg Stanfield, GXP, 6.627, 209.20; 11.
Larry Morgan, Ford Mustang, 6.629, 210.47; 12. Jason Line, GXP, 6.653,
211.06.
Not
Qualified: 13. Grace Howell, 6.680, 207.43; 14. V. Gaines, 7.182,
206.07; 15. Warren Johnson, 7.250, 203.89; 16. Erica Enders, 13.387,
65.63; 17. Jeg Coughlin, 18.205, 81.37; 18. Steve Kent, 19.142, 43.76.
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