Page Four     Eliminations Round Two - Sunday 11:51 a.m. Following the pre race ceremonies, the second round of Top Fuel kicked off under another sunny sky.   The first pair out for the second stanza was Rick Williamson and Jim Murphy with the latter having lane choice.                                 Both drivers left together - a portent for things to come.                                         From the hit both cars were welded together.         Neither driver took his foot off the throttle until the ET light and what the fans got was simply a great ol' drag race with Williamson nipping Murphy by 0.0094 seconds (approximately 3 feet).         In the closest Top Fuel race of the weekend both drivers posted numbers to be proud of. Williamson's 5.867 at 250.06 was just good enough to beat Murphy's 5.870 at 251.18.       Next out was Rick McGee and Adam Sorokin. This would prove to be a good old drag race as well.         At the hit McGee found himself the victim of a sizable Sorokin gate job.                 Something that is not often seen is the settings on Sorokin's injector blades (aka butterflies). In most other set-ups the blades are completely open flat across the hat openings when the throttle is on the firewall. It appears that these are little more than one-quarter open. In a normal application this would suggest the fuel is severely restricted going into the barrel valve. But hey, this is a Chevy.                     At half track Sorokin still had a car length lead.     But where it counted McGee scored the win with a stout 5.814 at 249.79. Sorokin was once again the victim of an 1100' fuse slowing to a 5.935 at 209.15. If you do the math this was still a very close race.         Pair three matched up Troy Green and Rick Rogers.                   By just .003 seconds this race was over when Rogers went red.                                         Going for lane choice in the semis, Green legged it through.     Had Rogers not left a tick early this would have been one hell of a drag race. Green got the win with a 5.983 at 222.27 but Rogers carded a slightly quicker 5.978 at 242.32.         The final pair of round two had a lot riding on it and in the end would prove to be controversial to say the least. Facing Brad Thompson, Brett Harris needed to win this round to take the Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series Top Fuel championship away from Rick White. Simple as that.   Harris fired first with Thompson about 8 seconds behind him.             Once again note all the fuel coming out of Thompson's vent. This factor may or may not have played any part in this drama.         Thompson did a very short burnout.     Harris did his standard smoky but rolled out to half track.         By the time Harris got back to the line Thompson had finished his burnout and was ready to stage.   Thompson put his first stage light on before Harris' data computer was activated.   Thompson got a huge starting line advantage but fell back immediately after hazing the tires.                                             Harris still had the lead at the 330' mark but Thompson had picked up some ground.       Harris got into some tire slippage of his own and lost the lead by the 660' block.     Coming up on the 1000' blocks Thompson still had a slight lead until he ran out of fuel which did very bad things to his engine.       Harris maintained traction and passed the wounded Thompson with about 100' to spare. It was not a pretty win but in the record books it will reflect it won him the 2009 Top Fuel championship. His 6.519 at 200.57 was just good enough to advance to the semi finals. Thompson woahed in a hurry slowing to a 6.865 at 129.44.     Thompson stopped on the track and was not a happy camper.     * Editors note: Much was said after this race and like eye witnesses to a crime most everyone saw something different. WDIFL simply thinks that in spite of what either driver did or didn't do it is the job of the starter to shut down a car that is intentionally taking too much time to stage and obviously no one was shut off. Nonetheless, both teams are over it and looking forward to next season.   Page 1 - Top Fuel Quaifying Session 1 Page 2 - Top Fuel Quaifying Session 2 Page 3 - Top Fuel Elimination Round 1 Page 5 - Top Fuel Semis & Finals Page 6 - Funny Cars part 1 Page 7 - Funny Cars part 2 Page 8 - Everything Else   Make your reservations NOW!   Related Sites All American Fuel Dragsters High Speed Motorsports Nitro Thunder Racing WW2 Racing Email For Photographer Contact Information     Members Site Map || Visitors Site Map Site Copyright Ewald Enterprises, 1998-2009. All Rights Reserved. WDIFL.com is a Left Coast Graphics  Web Property. Return to Top