POMONA, Calif. – Jack Beckman raced to the qualifying lead in Funny Car Thursday at the 52nd annual O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals presented by Super Start Batteries at historic Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
Morgan Lucas (Top Fuel) and Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) also were qualifying leaders at the 2012 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season-opener.
Beckman drove his Valvoline NextGen Dodge Charger to the provisional No. 1 spot with a 4.139 second pass at 308.14 mph to top the ultra-competitive Funny Car category. If Beckman holds on to the top spot it will be the fifth of his career and second at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
“The most important thing is if we can go down the track and get good computer data, we can pick away at it from there,” Beckman said. “If you go out there and smoke the tires, you don’t know how much you missed it by. We all know that 4.13 is not going to hold, but we feel we have as good a shot of stepping up as any other car out there.”
Courtney Force made her first official run in NHRA Funny Car competition in her Traxxas Ford Mustang with a 4.210 second pass at 303.16 mph, which was good enough for sixth in the lineup. Courtney will race alongside her father and Funny Car legend 15-time world champ, John Force, for the second round of qualifying of the NHRA season-opener.
Defending Top Fuel event winner Morgan Lucas drove his GEICO/Lucas Oil dragster to the top of the pack with his pass of 3.832 seconds at 320.28 mph during Thursday’s qualifying efforts.
“The weather conditions today were pretty similar to what we had in testing, so our team has a lot of confidence in this range,” Lucas said. “Hopefully Sunday is the same, but I know we’re expecting cooler conditions Saturday, so you never know what’s going to happen, but hopefully we can keep running along with the big guys.”
In Pro Stock, Edwards will try to secure his 41st No. 1 of his career and fifth at this track with his performance of 6.545 seconds at 211.86 mph in his Penhall/K&N/Interstate Pontiac GXP.
“It feels really, really good,” Edwards said. “When you start off a new season, you never know what to expect, and we got off to a great start. It was a great run. My guys did a phenomenal job. We just made one of the nicest runs we’ve made in Pomona in a long time, so it’s a great start for us. Hopefully, we can build on this tomorrow and see what happens.”
Qualifying continues Friday, Feb. 10 at 1:30 p.m. followed by the final two qualifying sessions on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 11 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. Eliminations begin Sunday at 11 a.m.
POMONA, Calif. -- Thursday's results after the first of four rounds of qualifying for the 52nd annual O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals presented by Super Start Batteries at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, first of 23 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. Qualifying will continue Friday for Sunday's final eliminations.
Top Fuel -- 1. Morgan Lucas, 3.832 seconds, 320.28 mph; 2. Tony Schumacher, 3.838, 320.58; 3. Shawn Langdon, 3.857, 319.29; 4. Steve Torrence, 3.857, 318.39; 5. Brandon Bernstein, 3.865, 314.90; 6. Spencer Massey, 3.866, 320.20; 7. Khalid alBalooshi, 3.873, 318.47; 8. Clay Millican, 3.884, 309.34; 9. Doug Kalitta, 3.887, 314.53; 10. Bob Vandergriff, 3.889, 316.01; 11. Cory McClenathan, 3.968, 310.13; 12. Terry McMillen, 4.194, 233.60.
Not Qualified: 13. Steven Chrisman, 4.686, 165.54; 14. David Grubnic, 5.413, 122.03; 15. Rod Fuller, 5.676, 114.01; 16. Antron Brown, 6.615, 96.45; 17. Steve Faria, 8.662, 65.92; 18. Troy Buff, broke.
Funny Car -- 1. Jack Beckman, Dodge Charger, 4.139, 308.14; 2. Bob Tasca III, Ford Mustang, 4.150, 307.37; 3. Johnny Gray, Charger, 4.158, 307.23; 4. Matt Hagan, Charger, 4.177, 307.23; 5. John Force, Mustang, 4.192, 302.89; 6. Courtney Force, Mustang, 4.210, 303.16; 7. Bob Bode, Chevy Impala SS, 4.244, 295.08; 8. Tony Pedregon, Impala SS, 4.253, 288.33; 9. Cruz Pedregon, Toyota Solara, 4.433, 207.75; 10. Alexis DeJoria, Solara, 4.438, 211.00; 11. Jim Head, Solara, 5.021, 163.91; 12. Todd Lesenko, Impala SS, 5.133, 152.45.
Not Qualified: 13. Ron Capps, 5.850, 117.62; 14. Jeff Arend, 7.551, 87.60; 15. Mike Neff, 7.594, 85.48; 16. Tim Wilkerson, 7.761, 84.74; 17. James Day, 8.823, 78.29; 18. Jack Wyatt, broke.
Pro Stock -- 1. Mike Edwards, Pontiac GXP, 6.545, 211.86; 2. Ronnie Humphrey, GXP, 6.561, 211.39; 3. Vincent Nobile, Dodge Avenger, 6.574, 210.97; 4. Allen Johnson, Avenger, 6.580, 211.23; 5. Shane Gray, GXP, 6.584, 209.95; 6. Rodger Brogdon, GXP, 6.594, 209.92; 7. Ron Krisher, GXP, 6.595, 210.60; 8. Greg Anderson, GXP, 6.600, 211.49; 9. Kurt Johnson, GXP, 6.620, 209.17; 10. Greg Stanfield, GXP, 6.627, 209.20; 11. Larry Morgan, Ford Mustang, 6.629, 210.47; 12. Jason Line, GXP, 6.653, 211.06.
Not Qualified: 13. Grace Howell, 6.680, 207.43; 14. V. Gaines, 7.182, 206.07; 15. Warren Johnson, 7.250, 203.89; 16. Erica Enders, 13.387, 65.63; 17. Jeg Coughlin, 18.205, 81.37; 18. Steve Kent, 19.142, 43.76.
