Indianapolis2: Scotty Cannon eliminations summary

Cannon advances to second round

INDIANAPOLIS (Sept. 7, 2003) - No. 10 qualifier Scotty Cannon was the only Funny Car driver of the three in Don Schumacher Racing's camp to advance to the second round today. He accomplished that by defeating No. 7 qualifier Ron Capps in the first round of U.S. Nationals final eliminations with a more than reputable reaction time of .059 to Capps' .072. That launch translated into a powerful 4.903-second elapsed time at 311.34 to beat Capps' 4.928/306.88.

Cannon wasn't able to turn that win into another one in the second round, when he faced Tim Wilkerson. With both bulbs lit on the Christmas Tree, Cannon took off with a .134 reaction time to Wilkerson's .088. Cannon was ahead at 60 feet until his Oakley Funny Car started to drop cylinders. He pedaled it as best he could, but ended up losing to Wilkerson's 4.994/305.15 with his 6.551/133.84.

"It's one of those things," he said. "It just overpowered the track for what it could stand. The clutch may have gotten a little warm on me because I was off the pedal for probably a little longer than I should have been. We'll bundle it all up and go to the next race."

Lighting up the first two bulbs at the start wasn't his plan, said the popular Mohawk-wearing racer. "I didn't mean to do it. When I went to pull the first one, I just rolled in a little far, and the second one was on. I didn't know if I had time to back it up or not so I didn't back up. It really didn't hurt anything. I didn't do it on purpose."

Cannon and his team have been on an upswing in recent races and, although the loss was disappointing, Cannon believes the team, of which he is now crew chief, is making headway. "I just messed up a little bit driving," he said, "but I think we're making headway, the car's proven that."

Cannon hangs on to 14th in POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car points, with 622.

Next up is Round 18 of 23 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series events, the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., Sept. 12-14.