Photo Credit : AJ Appeal, RacingRefresh.com
The sun was melting the slick asphalt in Norwalk, Ohio as the third round of Nitro Qualifying began. After an early afternoon of time trials and practicing, autograph sessions, and catered luncheons with their established guests, the teams of NHRA’s top divisions took to the track. A parody of great and terrible times were displayed to start the event.
The top-fuel class was littered with poor runs throughout. Nearly half of the initial top-fuel passes were in the eleven second range. While the challenges that some teams were facing was the headline, there was plenty of speed as well. Leah Pruett broke the trend with a 319 mph run down the strip, positioned across Clay Millican. The Capco teammates of Shawn Langdon and reigning champion Steve Torrence ended the round fastest overall. In all but one of the rounds head-to-head runs, the left lane was the quickest.
Funny car followed with a much more competitive batch of speed, and a final pass that included the two most popular drivers in the full bodied cars, John Force and Ron Capps. Capps had issues in the round and Force managed a high for the round just shy of 326MPH. In total, seven of the cars who made pass did so at a speed over 300 mph, led by Force himself.
Stay tuned with RacingRefresh.com for more updates through the weekend!