Saturday's Phoenix Photos
Saturday, October 15, 2011
On the second day of the NHRA Arizona Nationals, fans swarmed in to see the final day of qualifying at Firebird Int'l Raceway in Phoenix. Attendees were greeted with sunny skies and warm, dry weather once again. |
North of the dragstrip and bordering the nitro pits is Firebird Lake. Drag boat events are hosted there annually, and it's common to see people skiing on the lake during the weekend. |
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Longtime race official Harold Owens manned the staging lanes like he has at events across the southwestern United States since the 1970s. |
| YAS Marina/DiGiorno crewmember Dave Fletcher put one of his many talents on display when he put on his welding mask to repair the headers on the Rod Fuller-driven Top Fueler. |
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[12:35 p.m.] Angie Smith (left) moved into the top half of the Pro Stock Motorcycle field with a seven-flat pass during the first session of the day. Hector Arana Sr. (above) trails only his son's class-leading 6.889 after recording a 6.937 at 194 mph. |
[12:45 p.m.] Mike Edwards, being guided by crewmember Allan Lindsey, rocketed to a 6.61 in the third session to keep himself atop the Pro Stock qualifying sheet. |
[12:55 p.m.] Terry McMillen, whose Amalie Oil dragster and crew are decked out in pink trim to promote Breast Cancer Awareness, sits on the bump spot heading into the fourth and final Top Fuel qualifying session. McMillen wants to improve to avoid a possible second DNQ in a row. |
[1:12 p.m.] The Worsham Racing Funny Car team is having it's most competitive outing since Del last drove for it in 2008. Chuck Worsham is acting as crew chief for driver Todd Lesenko, who is currently in the No. 11 position heading into the final qualifying round in his national event debut. |
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[1:25 p.m.] Legendary tuner Roland Leong is at the event calling the shots on Tim Boychuk's Troy Lee-designed Nostalgia Funny Car entry. |
| [1:45 p.m.] Tuners have been putting their hot-track setups to use on a racing surface that, despite holding up nicely with the efforts of the NHRA Safety Safari presented by AAA, has approached 130 degrees during the afternoon. |
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[2:20 p.m.] David Hope made it into the Pro Stock Motorcycle show with a 7.115 in the final session, bumping Shawn Gann out by a mere two-thousandths of a second. |
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[2:25 p.m.] Arizona race fans came out in droves for the fourth stop of the 2011 Countdown to the Championship. |
| [2:40 p.m.] Warren Johnson has been to the Phoenix event every year since it's inception. He'll start from the No. 16 position in Pro Stock on Sunday and face Mike Edwards in the opening round. |
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[2:45 p.m.] Chris "the Greek" Karamesines made his third appearance at this event in his long and legendary career. He failed to qualify after his chutes deployed on the burnout in the final Top Fuel session. |
| [2:55 p.m.] Spencer Massey entered the event with the Top Fuel points lead but took a big hit when he surprisingly failed to qualify for only the second time in his career. The FRAM dragster went up in smoke during the final session. |
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[3:13 p.m.] After having his 3.950 run from Friday night thrown out due to being 5 pounds light at the scales, Antron Brown made a pair of three-second laps today in his Top Fueler. He began with a 3.988 and posted 3.991 in his final attempt. Both times were the quickest of the respective rounds, netting Brown a total of six bonus points. |
[3:26 p.m.] John Force was in danger of not making the show, but he squeezed in with a 4.352 in the final Funny Car session. |
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[3:30 p.m.] The title hopes of Ron Capps took a major hit when he failed to qualify in Funny Car for the first time since the Topeka event in 2007. It broke the longest active qualifying streak in the class at 105 races. Tony Pedregon also failed to qualify. |
[3:40 p.m.] Independent Funny Car racer Jeff Diehl breathed a sigh of relief upon finding out that his last-ditch 4.36 stayed in the show. Diehl's team thrashed to repair a engine between today's qualifying sessions. |
[3:55 p.m.] Connie Kalitta oversaw all four teams in his fleet secure qualifying positions. Doug Kalitta and Dave Grubnic will carry the flag in Top Fuel, and Jeff Arend and Alexis DeJoria will make race-day starts in Funny Car. |