NHRA
Joliet II: Saturday qualifying report
National Records Fall; No 1 Qualifiers are Set for CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway JOLIET, Ill. - Route 66 Raceway continues to play host to national record times and speeds as two champions put their name in the ...
Published: Oct 3, 2004, 8:27 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
National Records Fall; No 1 Qualifiers are Set for CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway
JOLIET, Ill. - Route 66 Raceway continues to play host to national record times and speeds as two champions put their name in the record books again Saturday during the fourth annual CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals.
Just a week after he clinched his second consecutive NHRA POWERade Pro Stock world championship, Greg Anderson set the national records for time and speed, running a 6.661-second pass at 207.75 mph in his Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac Grand Am.
John Force - the current Funny Car points leader - is aiming for his 13th career NHRA world championship. He turned in the quickest pass in Funny Car history with a 4.697 at 325.30 for the 123rd No. 1 qualifying award of his career. Force needs to run a 4.744 pass on Sunday to set the national record and earn the 20-point bonus.
Cory McClenathan (Top Fuel) also led qualifying at the $1.8 million NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event.
Anderson set both ends of the national record at Englishtown, N.J. in 2003 before David Connolly ran the quickest pass during the first round Saturday. Connolly went 6.667, but didn't back it up before Anderson laid down quicker numbers, earning the 31st No. 1 qualifying spot of his career.
"We've absolutely been thinking about records ever since we got here and saw the forecast," Anderson said. "We only get conditions like this maybe once or twice a year so you have to be ready to take full advantage of it. We got one chance last year in E-town (Englishtown) and this is the first chance we've had since then, really. It sure gets your heart pumping when you see how good it is out there."
Force has a 233-point lead over second-place Gary Scelzi, who qualified in the No. 7 spot. Third place driver Del Worsham qualified second after four rounds, but was in the No. 1 spot after the first three qualifying sessions.
"That was an important pass because Del Worsham was No. 1 up until that point and he's right behind us in the points," Force said. "If he had jumped up a little bit then he'd have the E.T. record and he'd get the extra 20 points. It still might happen but at least we can try to one-up whatever he does. At this point in the chase, 20 points is big."
McClenathan ran to the top of his category with a 4.490 pass at 328.62 in his CARQUEST dragster for his 29th career top qualifier. "This is just awesome for the team," McClenathan said. "[Co-crew chief] John Stewart came back on board two races ago and we're right back to the way we were running before. The guys did a great job. I'm just the lucky guy who gets to wheel the car. When you race under conditions like this you know you can just throw the trailer at it and it will probably stick. That's what we did and the car was perfect.
"The NHRA made some rule changes to make us safer and it threw everyone off for a little while but I knew it wouldn't take us long to get right back to the times and speeds we were running before. Sure, the conditions are perfect here, but a 4.4 is a 4.4 no matter how you slice it."
Final eliminations are set for 11 a.m. on Sunday.
-nhra-
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
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Joliet II: Ron Capps Saturday summary
Next article Joliet II: Johnny Gray Saturday summary
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Del Worsham
Good, bad and ugly dominate Gatornationals memories
NHRA
NHRA
Good, bad and ugly dominate Gatornationals memories
Courtney Force, Leah Pritchett lead nitro Spring Training
NHRA
NHRA
Courtney Force, Leah Pritchett lead nitro Spring Training
Testing times for NHRA’s elite
NHRA
NHRA
Testing times for NHRA’s elite
Latest news
NASCAR Truck Series championship down to two with two to go
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck 1 h
NASCAR Truck Series championship down to two with two to go
MotoGP Australian GP: Marc Marquez recovers from crash to take pole at wet Phillip Island
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
3 h
MotoGP Australian GP: Marc Marquez recovers from crash to take pole at wet Phillip Island
No factory Honda bikes in Australian GP as Luca Marini withdraws due to virus
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
3 h
No factory Honda bikes in Australian GP as Luca Marini withdraws due to virus
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
Subscribe