NHRA

Bristol: Scotty Canon eliminations summary

Cannon eliminated in first round in Bristol. BRISTOL, Tenn. (April 27, 2003) -- After two days of cloudy, cool, and even wet weather, Sunday morning dawned bright and warm after an early morning low fog was burned off by the sun. With the sun came ...

Published: Apr 28, 2003, 6:00 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Cannon eliminated in first round in Bristol.

BRISTOL, Tenn. (April 27, 2003) -- After two days of cloudy, cool, and even wet weather, Sunday morning dawned bright and warm after an early morning low fog was burned off by the sun. With the sun came new conditions for the quarter-mile Bristol Dragway nestled between two mountains, and new challenges for the Oakley "Elite Special Forces" Funny Car team.

After qualifying No. 11 in the sixth round of 23 in the 2003 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, Scotty Cannon, from nearby Lyman, S.C., a fan favorite here in Bristol because of his days as an IHRA champion, faced Johnny Gray in the first round of final eliminations in the heat of the day. Both drivers left the starting line clean and fast, but it was Gray all the way to the finish line for the victory with a 4.930/301.07 pass, while Cannon smoked the tires, slowing to a 5.807/179.16.

"Everything was going good until I spun the tires," said Cannon, the 1999 NHRA Rookie of the Year. "We're still a new team. It's going to happen and happen again until we get some runs under our belt, so we can have something to go back and look at.

"We have never been here with the sun out," he added. "For us this morning was like the first round of qualifying. We had nothing to look at. We didn't know where to run the clutch, where to run the motor. We had to take a shot at it. Our motto is, 'We ain't going to back it down and get outrun just because we backed it down too much.' We kind of had it jacked up, had too much power for the track, and it just spun the tires.

Drivers in the top half of the field had selected the right lane for eliminations, with the win/loss results 5-3 in favor of the right lane. Without lane choice, Cannon was relegated to the left lane. "I'm pretty sure the right lane is better. Would it have helped our car? Probably. I would think so."

Next race is this weekend, May 1-4, at Atlanta Dragway, in Commerce, Ga., the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals.

-dsr-

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Bristol: Cory McClenathan Saturday summary

Next article Pedregon keeps points lead despite semi setback

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Official race results: NASCAR Cup Talladega Chase race

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Talladega II

21 min

Official race results: NASCAR Cup Talladega Chase race

How will Kimi Antonelli become F1 world champion at Mexico GP?

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

25 min

How will Kimi Antonelli become F1 world champion at Mexico GP?

Kyle Larson wins wild Talladega NASCAR Cup race after charging from 11th on final lap

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Talladega II

43 min

Kyle Larson wins wild Talladega NASCAR Cup race after charging from 11th on final lap

Five quick takeaways from US GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

59 min

Five quick takeaways from US GP

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts