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Von Smith Rockingham Review

ROCKINGHAM, NC-- Von Smith says there is no such thing as overkill. The veteran unofficially clinched the Pro Funny crown for 1999 during this weekend's CARQUEST Autumn Nationals in Rockingham, NC., but had to have another win. The Oak Ridge, ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

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ROCKINGHAM, NC-- Von Smith says there is no such thing as overkill. The veteran unofficially clinched the Pro Funny crown for 1999 during this weekend's CARQUEST Autumn Nationals in Rockingham, NC., but had to have another win. The Oak Ridge, Tn.,-based, defending Pro Funny Car champion won his fifth title of the season at the expense of Jimmy Rector. The victory marked Smith's second consecutive victory, and his seventh final round berth.

The only place that Smith was not so brutal on the competition during the event was in qualifying, Smith usually comes out in qualifying and scores the quickest lap of all Pro Funny Cars and loads the car, not to run the rest of the day. However, during the first session, he rattled the tires and was forced to abort his first run. He made up for his earlier shortcomings during the second session and was the quickest of all with 5.913/237.40.

He made a very respectable lap during the third session, although it didn't improve on Friday's effort. His 5.927/237.71 was good enough for the second spot in the Pro Funny division. He declined to run the evening session and ended up as the second qualifier and had to face Chris Hunt in the first round.

Smith covered the former Pro Modified racer by two-tenths with a "conservative" 6.017/236.03 that easily covered Hunt's 6.274/216.71. He then set his sights on Mark Thomas and took him out on both ends of the strip by a 5.919/238.09 to 6.083/210.42 margin. Smith hammered out his quickest lap of the weekend with a 5.914/239.29 to take out Jim Lape's 6.068/234.55. While Smith was an obvious favorite, he did not underestimate Rector. Smith strapped a quicker reaction on Rector and led him the distance for a 5.929/240.12 to 6.086/235.66 decision.

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