HE'S IN, HE'S OUT

Almost everybody at Sonoma was cheering the qualifying efforts of funny car veteran Dale Pulde in the seat of Steve Plueger's '02 Firebird. The car hit the track on Friday running 6.242 and then bettering his effort at 5.669 in the second round still sitting 17th. Pulde earned his way into the 16th slot in the fourth session running 5.220 at 273.55 just behind Del Worsham's 15th qualifying position at 5.109 289.14 mph.

Top qualifier John Force was thrilled to be meeting his old friend and match race rival in the first round on Sunday saying, "If I beat him I'll move onto the second round, if Pulde beats me I'll jump 10 feet in the air."

Two hours later Pulde was removed from the qualifying sheets and out of Sunday's eliminations with the statement from NHRA, "Dale Pulde, who qualified No. 16 in Funny Car, was disqualified following qualifying because it was discovered by race officials that his NHRA competition license had expired."

According to Pulde his license had not expired and in fact was good until the end of 2004. Both Pulde and car owner Steve Plueger knew that in addition to making the 16-car field Pulde needed to make two of his passes above 280 mph to re-certify his license since he

ADVERTISEMENT

had not driven in the last two years.

According to Pulde, Graham Light, NHRA VP of Racing Operations, had "blessed" his last pass and the low-buck flopper was in the field. Then later Graham changed his mind, but was unavailable to discuss it with Pulde.

The confusion may have come from the recent change to 85% nitro and a question of what the exact mile per hour number was necessary to exceed for license re-certification. The fact that NHRA, the track announcers and Summit's Drag Race Central were including Pulde in the qualifying ladders further gave credibility to the effort. Pulde was not making isolated single license-upgrade passes, but was paired with Bob Bode and twice with Del Worsham in qualifying. Pulde's mile per hour was better than that of #17 Bob Bode, #18 Terry Haddock and #19 Bob Gilbertson. Bode replaced Pulde in the 16th slot and went out of competition in the first round to Force's Mustang. (Zak Hawthorne photo) [8-2-2004]