- Quotes
- Results
- Thursday Report
NHRA Finals held at Pomona Raceway
Words by Darr Hawthorne
Photos by James Drew and Tim Marshall
11/10/06
John Force and son-in-law Robert Hight squared off in the first round of Funny Car qualifying. Force may have to get around Hight to clinch the Funny Car title.
SoCal Fuel Coupe driver Del Worsham could be on the verge of salvaging his CSK-backed team’s lackluster 2006 season. He is currently leading Funny Car qualifying with a 4.712 /309.56 -- the quickest run of his career -- at the season-ending Auto Club NHRA Finals held at Pomona Raceway. Worsham is in danger of finishing outside the top-10 for the first time in a decade. "We're definitely racing on a record-setting track," Worsham said.
The drivers fighting for the Funny Car championship made strong efforts as well. John Force sits third with a 4.731 and Ron Capps is fifth with a 4.769. Robert Hight anchors the field in the sixteenth position with an off-pace 5.637.
Tony Schumacher leads Pomona Top Fuel qualifying with his 4.490 at 328.54 mph run sitting as the only top fueler in the 4.40’s. Schumacher needs every point he can muster to overtake points leader Doug Kalitta, who now sits fifth in early qualifying at 4.564. Schumacher and crew chief Alan Johnson vow to re-set the NHRA national record of 4.437 in order to gain every possible championship point. "Our goal was to do a back-up run (for the national record)," said Schumacher. "We wanted a 4.46 or 4.45 but the car was
extremely weak in the middle. Saturday night will be the session.”Mike Strasburg, who runs a very limited NHRA schedule, surprised a good Thursday Pomona crowd with a strong 4.578, but found the top-end sand trap when his parachutes failed to open. Allan Bradshaw sits sixteenth with his 4.693.
Pro Stock car is led by the Summit-sponsored cars of Greg Anderson and 2006 Champion Jason Line with stout 6.677 and 6.688 runs respectively. "We're not under any illusion that we were that much quicker than the rest of the field,” Anderson said. “We just did a better job in that session and it's another feather in the cap for our two crew chiefs, Rob Downing and Jeff Perley."
Ontario, CA, racer John Mihovetz’s trick twin-turbo '02 Cougar ran a 7.078 on a stout 7.39 index which left him on the outside looking in after two rounds of Competition Eliminator qualifying.
Pro Stock Motorcycle championship points leader Matt Hines showed he’ll be difficult to catch this weekend when he started off qualifying with a stout 7.020 at 191.00 mph on his Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson. Fellow championship contenders and U.S. Army teammates Antron Brown and Angelle Sampey both earned top-half positions. Sampey is third with a 7.066 on her Suzuki, while Brown is eighth with a 7.106.