NHRA News: PRO Warm-ups Friday report (2/13/2004)

PRO Warm-ups Friday report

Reporting by Rick Green of FastNews
2/13/2004

Excessively cold weather cooled the first day of action at the PRO Warm-ups at Southwestern International Raceway in Tucson, Ariz. Only a handful of teams braved the elements and attempted passes.

Early on, NHRA part-timer Clay Millican and Funny Car stalwart John Force have posted the best elapsed times. Millican drove his 104+ Octane Boost dragster through an early-shutoff pass of 4.86 at 245 mph. Force followed in his Castrol GTX High-Mileage Ford Mustang with a steady but short 4.85 at 263 mph, which he clicked off early.

Testing resumes Saturday morning.

Friday Race Report No. 1 from the PRO Warm-ups Southwestern International Raceway in Tucson, Ariz. – It was a brisk 29 degrees this morning and a quick walk through the pits shows we have all three of the Force Funny Cars, Brandon Bernstein, John and Rhonda Smith, Clay Millican, Brady Kalivoda, and Mark Pawuk.

12:00 p.m. Clay Millican: No Time
Millican is the first Pro on the track today, and he does his burnout and then drives on down the track. The crew is picking up some little parts and the track crew is cleaning up a little oil around the 330-foot mark.

1:00 p.m. Brady Kalivoda: 0.873 2.218 3.156 267.00 4.099 5.141 196.93
Kalivoda was on a good pass and then clicks it off around 900 feet. Looked like it was a planned shut-off.

1:30 p.m. Gary Densham: 0.858 2.907 5.467 88.48 8.096 10.646 84.91
Track temperature is 82 degrees. Densham started to shake the tires as soon as he hit the throttle and clicks it off.

2:00 p.m. John Force: 0.878 2.289 3.278 258.86 4.087 4.856 263.51
It is now 50 degrees, 18-percent humidity, the barometer is 30.13 inches, and the track temperature remains 82 degrees. Force launched hard and keep the car hooked up and then shut it off early. This was a nice looking pass.

3:00 p.m. Eric Medlen: 0.909 2.368 3.425 241.37 4.297 5.177 234.25
Medlen with a soft set up and then shut off around 800 feet.

3:04 p.m. Gary Densham: 0.817 2.290 3.302 250.69 4.143 310.13
Densham with a real nice looking pass here, he had the car hitting on all cylinders and the tires stuck to the track all the way through 1,320 feet.

3:25 p.m. Clay Millican: 0.863 2.826 5.563 79.02 8.597 11.551 73.11
Millican smoked the tires around 70 feet and coasted through the quarter mile.

4:08 p.m. Troy Critchley: 1.056 2.966 5.182 98.61 7.627 10.084 86.34
Critchley did a long smoky burnout to about the 800-foot mark. He the chatters the tires around 100 feet and clicks it off.

Friday Race Report No. 2 from the PRO Warm-ups Southwestern International Raceway in Tucson, Ariz. – We are down to the last hour of testing here today. All of these runs were between 4:25 and 5:40 p.m.

4:25 p.m. John Force: 0.874 2.566 4.812 92.94 7.379 9.968 79.84
Force had tire shake as soon as he hit the throttle, and coast on through the 1,320.

4:35 p.m. Brady Kalivoda: No Time

Had a timing problem and he never receive a staging light and coasted on through the quarter mile.

4:40 p.m. John Smith: 0.864 2.202 3.200 244.16 4.243 5.493 156.53
Smith was out of the groove by half track and lifted.

4:45 p.m. Clay Millican: 0.879 2.231 3.198 258.62 4.042 4.869 245.76
Millican launched hard and was on great looking pass until about 800 feet when he got of the groove and close to the wall.

4:55 p.m. Eric Medlen: 0.920 2.493 4.380 111.85 6.656 8.905 94.43
Medlen was up in smoke by the 330-foot mark.

5:20 p.m. Brady Kalivoda: 1.245 5.086 8.965 62.32 12.408 15.361 75.63
Kalivoda is up in smoke as soon as he hits the throttle.

5:30 p.m. Troy Critchley 1.032 2.786 4.325 145.11 5.980 7.627 129.52
He was loose right from the start and then clicks it off.

5:40 p.m. Rhonda Hartman-Smith 1.113 4.352 7.449 78.32 10.219 12.802 81.62
Hartman-Smith is up in smoke right at the hit of the throttle. That was the last run of the day.

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