Thursday Track Report From 2010 NHRA Finals in Pomona


Qualifying for the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals kicked off on Thursday afternoon at Pomona Raceway, where Larry Dixon, Matt Hagan, Jason Line, and Hector Arana all grabbed the provisional leads in their respective categories.

According to Competition Motorsports Track Meter data, conditions prior to professional qualifying was 73.6 degrees air temperature, with a barometer of 29.04 inches, corrected altitude of 2,065 feet, and a track temperature of 90 degrees.

While overall, the track surface appeared to be in great shape, there was some concern amongst the teams over the left lane about 150′ out, and this became evident as the Funny Cars took to the track, where more than half the field struggled to get through the front half of the racetrack, followed by much of the same in Top Fuel despite the track temperature dropping by nearly 10 degrees. Track Meter uses 300 ft-lbs of torque on their gauges as the baseline for track surfaces, and during the first session, the readings were on the positive side art the launch point before leveling back out at the starting line. From that point to the 100′ mark, the readings gain remained on the positive end, peaking at 330 ft-lbs. It was around the 150′ mark, as mentioned, that things went to the negative side at 290 ft-lbs before leveling back out to the 660′ clocks.

Leaders Dixon, Hagan, and Arana all came from the right lane, and in both Top Fuel and Funny Car, four of the top five qualifiers came from the right lane.

Dixon and the Al-Anabi team entered the weekend with an 85-point lead over Tony Schumacher and the U.S. Army team and he extended it to 86 with a pace-setting 3.813 at 318.39 (Schumacher qualified second). With four rounds during eliminations, and each round-win worth 20 points, a lead of 80-plus points is all but insurmountable (Schumacher could earn an additional 20 points for setting a national record).

“Really all I did was get us qualified,” said Dixon, who eliminated the one mistake that could have opened the door for Schumacher. “We’ll be in the show no matter what else happens … we’ll be in the race.”

Hagan fired the first salvo of the much-anticipated final weekend of the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Series season with a blistering 4.139-second pass at 293.86 mph to earn the provisional No. 1 in Funny Car. The three bonus points he earned for the quickest pass of the session extended his lead over second-place John Force (qualified fourth) to 40 points, which means (since he owns the tiebreaker with Force) that if he maintains that margin throughout qualifying Force would need to win three more rounds on Sunday to win the championship.

“That’s huge,” Hagan said of the three bonus points, before adding cautiously, “It sounds great right now, but we’ve got a lot of qualifying left. I don’t think it will stick.”

Line, Summit Racing Pontiac teammate of points-leader Greg Anderson, paced the Pro Stock field with a 6.561-second pass at 211.16 mph that would be his second of the season and 18th of his career.

“It could be a big weekend for us,” said Line, who’s never won this race. “We can also move up to second in points, we gained three points on (Mike) Edwards. I’d like to finish second … a 1-2 finish (for Summit Racing) would be a nice way to end a not really nice year.”

Lucas Oil Buell rider Arana, the defending Pro Stock Motorcycle champion who has been mathematically eliminated this year, sits atop the class with a track record 6.870 at 194.35 that would be his third straight and seventh overall No. 1 of the season.

“I going to give it my best,” Arana said of trying for his first win of 2010. “It would be nice to finish and at least win this last one. Now that I have the performance, I just have to do my job on the light.”

About the author

Andrew Wolf

Andrew has been involved in motorsports from a very young age. Over the years, he has photographed several major auto racing events, sports, news journalism, portraiture, and everything in between. After working with the Power Automedia staff for some time on a freelance basis, Andrew joined the team in 2010.
Read My Articles

Drag Racing in your Inbox.

Build your own custom newsletter with the content you love from Dragzine, directly to your inbox, absolutely FREE!

Free WordPress Themes
Dragzine NEWSLETTER - SIGN UP FREE!

We will safeguard your e-mail and only send content you request.

Dragzine - Drag Racing Magazine

We'll send you the most interesting Dragzine articles, news, car features, and videos every week.

Dragzine - Drag Racing Magazine

Dragzine NEWSLETTER - SIGN UP FREE!

We will safeguard your e-mail and only send content you request.

Dragzine - Drag Racing Magazine

Thank you for your subscription.

Subscribe to more FREE Online Magazines!

We think you might like...


Street Muscle Magazine
Hot Rods & Muscle Cars
Diesel Army
Diesel Army
Engine Labs
Engine Tech

Dragzine - Drag Racing Magazine

Thank you for your subscription.

Subscribe to more FREE Online Magazines!

We think you might like...

  • Streetmuscle Hot Rods & Muscle Cars
  • Diesel Army Diesel Army
  • Engine Labs Engine Tech

Dragzine - Drag Racing Magazine

Dragzine

Thank you for your subscription.

Thank you for your subscription.

Dragzine - Drag Racing Magazine

Thank you for your subscription.

Thank you for your subscription.

Loading