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It’s going to be a beautiful weekend here in Pomona as the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing season gets underway with its first race of the year in Pomona. It may be early in the season, but as as the professional teams have found, every point counts and racers in all three categories are aiming to kick the 2012 campaign off with a bang. Stay tuned to DragZine Friday through Sunday for same day updates and photos from the Pomona Winternationals.
Special thanks to our event coverage sponsor Mickey Thompson. Check out their full line of tires and wheels at www.mickeythompsontires.com
It's almost a carbon copy to what happened last year - rain during qualifying. This time, it's on Saturday versus last year's Friday rainout. Luckily, rain has stopped early and there are nearly two dozen people out drying the track. With that in mind, Sportsman racing will be pushed back from its intended 8:15 starting time.
How many times can you say you have heard of a chassis breaking in half while being in the back of a hauler? Well, now you can and that was the unfortunate incident Terry Haddock uncovered when unloading his Top Fuel Funny Car Thursday.
“The frame literally broke in half,” said Chris Defrang. “Then after we fixed that, we realized there was 10 different cracks on the front half of the frame, and it isn’t even that old.”
While the chassis can be front-halved down the road, they needed to find something that was going to work…for this weekend. Luckily the team was able to buy a spare frame from Gary Densham, but to make matters worse, it was by a different manufacture.
This is where the chassis broke in half, and after welding it back together, realized there were nearly a dozen cracks elsewhere. Now the team scrambles to get the Densham-purchased chassis ready.
“Nothing fits, and I mean nothing,” Defrang exclaimed. “We had to remote virtually everything, from the tanks, to the rear end.”
Defrang is hesitant that the team will be ready for this afternoon’s qualifier as they are still waiting on parts to arrive. The NHRA has already certified the chassis but they will need another certification for safety once they have the car complete.
Antron Brown was out signing autographs before readying his Top Fuel dragster for Saturday's first round of qualifying. Brown currently sits 9th in qualifying with a 3.882 @ 311.70 mph pass.
Qualifying Round 3 Quick Updates
While Morgan Lucas maintained the number one spot in qualifying after the third round of Top Fuel, it was Spencer Massey that made the big jump from 8th to 2nd with a 3.820 @ 325.14 mph pass.
Antron Brown also made the jump from 9th to 4th in the third round with a 3.833 @ 322.81.
Funny Car
Funny Car got off to a slow start today as James Day oiled down the track from the 60 foot clock through the end of the 1320.
It was a different Robert that took over the number one spot in Funny Car during the third round and that was Robert Height with a 4.060 @ 316.52 mph pass, up from a staggering 18th spot.
Another JFR driver that went from unqualified to qualified was Mike Neff with a 4th place pass equaling 4.103 seconds at 307.16 mph.
"Hold onto my Full Throttle and watch this baby." Despite all the shuffling during qualifying Papa JFR still sits in 6th, slightly improving from a 4.185 to a 4.126.
Jeff Arend was finally able to put down a solid pass in his Toyota Funny Car and jumped from 19th to 7th with a 4.139 @ 304.32.
Pro Stock
The Professor Warren Johnson has been struggling with his Pontiac GXP all weekend and is currently one of two unqualified Pro Stock competitors, next to Steve Kent.
While the cooler air is helping the Pro Stockers run a little faster today, the gains have been marginal. Jason Line showed everyone why he has the number 1 on the side of his GXP by taking away the number one spot from Mike Edwards with a 6.535 @ 212.23.
Erica Enders has gone flat black this season with a new sponsor taking over for ZaZa Energy. Enders had a successful 2011 with her switch to Cagnazzi racing, and while she found herself in three final round appearances, failed to take home a Wally. Enders currently sits in 13th with a 6.597 @ 209.43 mph run.
Qualifying Round 4
This photo from last year best represents what's delaying the 4th round of qualifying. Pro Stock is in the lanes and the crew is feverishly trying to get the track dry before the 7pm curfew. The racing for today is officially over due to the rain.
