Reading Friday Recap

READING PA - SUMMIT FastNews - Hurricane Floyd did his best to drown the 15th annual True Value Keystone Nationals, but in the end all he managed was to mess up a bunch of travel schedules. People kept trickling in here throughout the day, the racers and race officials shrugged off the storm and got down to business, with a full day of racing on a compressed schedule. The day was capped by a thrilling side-by-side Top Fuel "race" between Scott Kalitta, a past Top Fuel champion, and Tony Schumacher, the current Top Fuel points leader. Kalitta's 4.589-second, 307.37 mph run was good enough to earn the provisional pole position, while Schumacher's 4.591 at 314.46 took the second spot and reset the Maple Grove Raceway track speed record. Their run displaced Kenny Bernstein's just-completed 4.604 at 310.23, moving Bernstein to third on the ladder. In Funny Car, John Force took the top spot of the ladder on his first attempt of the day, a 4.967 at 282.13 mph after losing the engine just before the finish line. Funny Car newcomer Scotty Cannon, running beside Force in the second session, moved into the second spot with a 5.110 at 281.16, and Dean Skuza moved to the third spot at 5.123 and 278.46. also in the second session. The Funny Car competitors, with less downforce than the Top Fuel cars, had problems finding traction on the top half of the quarter-mile course.

Kurt Johnson and his father Warren raced side-by-side to close the evening Pro Stock session and this time the younger Johnson took the honors, running a track record 6.872 at 199.02 mph over his father's 6.903 at 199.46. Jeg Coughlin Jr. split the family duo on the ladder, however, running a 6.899 at 199.29 just prior to the "family feud." Ironically, Coughlin also stole the track speed record honors from WJ by also posting a 199.46 mph speed, his coming during the first qualifying session. Once again Angelle Seeling and Matt Hines battled over the Pro Stock Motorcycle honors, but this weekend the honor has been all Hines'. During the second session, Hines matched Seeling's national ET record with a track record 7.212-second run, at a track record speed of 185.83 mph. The best Seelking could manage was a 7.311 at 179.35, just ahead of Steve Johnson's 7.316 at 176.53 (from the first session) and Gary Tonglet's second-session 7.318 at 180.50. Three outstanding runs head the Federal-Mogul Dragster ladder, headed by Arthur Gallant's 5.464 at 250.55 mph, followed by Shawn Bowen's 5.493 at 251.04 and Douglas Foley's 5.576 at 250.27. In the Federal-Mogul Funny Car sessions, Tony Bartone showed chilling consistency - chilling if you are one of his competitors, anyway. He was clocked at 5.726 seconds, 245.43 mph in the first session and backed that up with a 5.724 at 245.96 in the second. The only other driver close to that consistency was Bob Newberry, who improved from a 5.810 to a 5.806 in the second session, but Newberry fell from third to fourth on the ladder when Paul Gill moved around him with a second-session 5.757 at 249.44. Frank Manzo failed to improve in the second session, but his first-session 5.743 at 248.75 was good enough to hang on to the second spot. Two more rounds of qualifying Saturday will set the Professional fields for Sunday's final eliminations. Federal-Mogul and Competition Eliminator competitors will begin eliminations Saturday. Stock and Super Stock racers completed one round of qualifying and two rounds of eliminations Friday, while Super Comp and Super Gas competitors will get their first chances at the track Saturday. Results provided by the FastNews Network, courtesy of Summit Racing Equipment ** http://www.summitracing.com/ **