 |
 |
||||
 |
 |
|
|||
 |
THIS BUD'S FOR WHO?Words by Darr Hawthorne. Photos by Zak Hawthorne
Coming into the Saturday Automobile Club of SoCal Finals, the favorite to take home $100,000 up for winning the Budweiser Top Fuel Shootout would have to go to Kenny Bernstein. Through two rounds of Finals qualifying, KB had a solid lead in the number one spot running a best of 4.528 @ 324.59. Mike Dunn picked up the track record running 329.67 MPH on the Friday afternoon, moving up behind Bernstein with a 4.533. Larry Dixon in the Miller Lite dragster also improved to a 4.542, staying in the # 3 spot.
The first round pitted Bernstein against Darrell Russell, who defeated KB in the finals of the recent Las Vegas race. This is the second Shootout for the Top Fuel Rookie; Bernstein has characterized Russell as his "nemesis" this season having lost to him in five races in 2001. With six of the Shootout's participants in the 4.5's the only team to be lacking in performance is the Joe Amato/Russell combo having run a best of 4.722. This is the seventeenth annual race and the first time two of the Anheuser-Busch sponsored races have been run in one year, thanks to a rainout of last years competition at the finals. Gary Scelzi will meet Doug Kalitta and Mike Dunn will take on Doug Herbert. Larry Dixon will be racing Tony Schumacher, if things go the beer way, there's a chance that the two Top Fuel Championship points leaders Bernstein and Dixon could meet in the finals of this three round shootout.
Scelzi had won this show 3 times but will not be repeating
as the first round starts. The Winston dragster goes up in smoke at
about 300 feet as Doug Kalitta motors on with a solid 4.580 @ 319.60. |
|
|||
|
|
|||||
