DIXON'S EARLY DEPARTURE
During round two at St. Louis, defending POWERade
NHRA Top Fuel Champion Larry Dixon fell to Darrell
Russell -- the man he'd beaten for the event
win a couple of week earlier in Columbus, OH.
For the first round, crew chief Dick LaHaie
went head to head with scorching track conditions,
while Dixon went against number-14 qualifier
Tony Schumacher. LaHaie beat the 135-degree
track temperature and Dixon beat Schumacher's
speed of 300.00 mph (4.802 ET), running an incredible
4.681-second run (320.89 mph).
"Excluding our second-round run, the five runs
prior to that (qualifying/round one), all averaged
4.68, exactly what we ran first round," said
LaHaie. "With that kind of an average,
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I
felt we could've won the race. When the track
cools off, it'll run 4.50s just like we want
it to, but we didn't get that far. We'll just
have to wait 'til the next race." --Kristen
Wilson
CORY MAC MIFFED
Cory McClenathan, driver of the NY Yankees/Berryman
Products dragster, made the best of a hot sticky
track when he defeated Mike Smith in the opening
round. The next round was not as kind to the
Darrell Gwynn Racing team, though, as McClenathan
smoked the tires against Scott Weis, and never
was a factor in the race.
"It's just one of those things," said McClenathan.
"We beat ourselves today. They deserve to win.
We weren't ready. We weren't prepared. There
was stuff that happened with the car at the
starting that should never have happened. We're
going to find a way to fix it and that's all
there is to it." -- Mickey Schultz
TOP FUEL TWOSOME
Rhonda Hartman-Smith raced her teammate and
husband, John "Bodie" Smith, for the fourth
time this season in the second round of Top
Fuel eliminations at the Sears Craftsman NHRA
Nationals. She beat number-one qualifier Kenny
Bernstein in round one, while Smith earned the
win light over Paul Romine.
In round two, Hartman-Smith crossed the finish
line ahead of Smith with a 5.28 at 270 mph over
his 5.62-second elapsed time at 253 mph. "It's
exciting to go head-to-head against my husband,"
Hartman-Smith said.
In the semis, Scott Weis (photo below) raced
past Hartman-Smith to advance to his career-first
Top Fuel final. The day left her ninth and Smith
10th in the NHRA Top Fuel points chase. -- Tara
Healey
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