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CONSISTENCY COUNTS FOR LITTON
Bruce Litton arrived in Shreveport as a man on a mission. As the defending
Top Fuel champ of the IHRA World Finals and after going winless in the
previous nine events this year, a little matter called pride -- not
to mention a third-place points finish -- was on the line.
Litton's Wix Filters team opened up with a tire-smoking first qualifying
attempt, but found the handle for the second session to post a 4.802,
then answered Clay Millican's 4.729 with a 4.713-secs pass in the final
qualifying round to take the number-one position.
Litton then beat number-eight qualifier Roger Dean and fellow Indianapolis
resident Paul Romine in the prelims to set up a match against Jim Head
in the final. Head wasn't able to answer the call, though, after suffering
a serious engine explosion in his semi-final win over Millican. That
left Litton to make a solo pass for the World Finals win, but he blew
the tires off immediately upon launching.
"We were actually testing on that run and trying something different
from everything else we'd done all weekend just to see if it'd work,"
Litton said afterwards. "It didn't."
"We said to ourselves coming in here that we really needed to step
up. Consistency has been our problem all year. We've been fast, but
we've had no consistency, so that's what we really tried to work on
and it showed," Litton continued. "We still weren't the fastest car
here, but we were the fastest consistent-wise and that's what it takes
to win races. This is a good starting point for us for next year."
EXPLOSIVE RESULTS
"Two words: Ka-BOOM!" That's how car owner Grant Flowers described
Bobby Lagana's engine explosion in Saturday afternoon's second round
of Top Fuel qualifying. Lagana's car erupted in a huge ball of flame
about the 1,000-foot mark when its fuel pump failed and the engine leaned
out. The driver said he felt it lose a connecting rod, but didn't realize
how serious the situation was behind his seat.
"I had no idea it was on fire. In fact, I was still on it for a couple
of hundred feet because I was so close to the [finish] line," Lagana
said. "It was only when they came running up to me with fire extinguishers
yelling, 'Bobby, are you okay?' that I figured it out."
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| Vicky Fanning cruises past in the left lane
as Bobby Lagana's ride erupts in flames during qualifying at Shreveport. |
Fortunately, no drivers were injured, but Lagana wasn't the only Top
Fuel pilot to experience a major explosion or engine fire at Red River
Raceway. Jack Ostrander suffered the same fate in a solo-pass qualifying
attempt on Saturday night, along with Roger Dean in Sunday's first elimination
round against Bruce Litton.
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