Page Six     Funny Cars Unlike Top Fuel and the other classes, the Funny Car program didn't begin on Friday. They had their first qualifying sessions on Saturday afternoon and second on Sunday morning. The quick 8 then came back for eliminations.   Although he lost first round, Garrett Bateman was crowned the 2009 Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series Funny Car Champion.         The Funny Car final didn't go off until 7:13 p.m. where Kris Krabell was matched with Josh Crawford.   But it was all anticlimatic when Crawford left before the tree was activated. Then Krabill left, shook, pedaled, and almost crossed the centerline, so he wisely lifted and coasted through for the win.         There was no shortage of photo ops in funny car but at the top of the list was this incredible driving job by Garrett Bateman in the first round. Matched with Josh Crawford, Bateman got into some major tire shake and then went for a major ride. This may fall under its better lucky than good category.         At about 120' the car made a hard left and Bateman had his hands full.   Crawford was oblivious of what was going on behind him and just kept truckin'.                                 4:32 p.m. Saturday - the first qualifying session for the flopper was led off by Mike Halstead in the bright yellow "Holy Toledo" Jeep. After the burnout he was unable to go either forward or backward, something broken in the driveline.   After some shaking and dancing Jerry Kumre Jr. clicked the Crazy Horse Mustang to a 10.530 at 77.76. One of four Canadian floppers on the grounds was Nathan Sitko who opened in the other lane with a 6.873 at 150.45.         The "what were you thinking award" went to Dale Van Gundy in the Quarter Pounder in this first quaifying run aside Jim Adolph in Ron Trotter's car.   Both cars left Ok but Van Gunde soon got out of the groove to the left.         Just past the 330' blocks Van Gundy decided he liked the left lane better.       Having missed the 330' block he set his sights on the 660' reflectors.     Now, one would think that after you swap lanes, straddle the center line, take out a block and nearly hit the other car that it might be time to get back where you belong. But Dale was having so much fun he just stayed where he was.       Surprisingly verteran drvier Jim Adolph made no effort to move over incase the white car decided to get a little cozier.       I'm sure some one had to ask him what he was thinking but one thing was for sure, he was conspicuously absent for the rest of the weekend.             All the usual suspects were on hand for the floppers.   Word is more Big Show guys are putting together NFC deals to do some low stress racing as did Gary Densham. He had a fun time but failed to make the show with a best of 6.066 at 229.29.             Timing blocks were cheap this weekend. Dwayne Patton collected the 330' reflector in Q1. Mike Savage in the Candies & Hughes tribute car went on to card a 6.049 at 233.10.         Todd Lesenko's car made a hard move toward the centerline and he had to backpedal which resulted in an off pace 7.410 at 165.77.   Another Big Show shoe making his NNFC debut was Cruz Pedregon in his Donny Couch built and tuned Joe Pisano tribute car. His first pass on the car was a respectable 6.112 at 218.12.             Craig Michael ran 6.406 at 220.75 in Vegas Heat.       The bellie flop award went to Bob Godfrey for this Q1 launch that quickly went into a tire shake wheelstand.         Check out the right rear tire.     Flop, bounce, land.       In the other lane Dale Pulde had no such problems and ran 6.095 at 226.24.       John Powers got his first lick in with a 6.113 at 238.09.     Jeff Utterback in the "Pisano & Matsubara" Vega turned in a 6.229 at 229.94 in this Q1 attempt. Nate Bugg a much better 6.093 at 235.84.       In his first shot Ed Dougan got into tire shake and almost got into the wall.       Steve Romanazzi is usually a player but not here as his 6.866 at 180.32 missed the show by a mile.   Jack Wright's car died on the burnout.   Tim Boychuk opened in the Canadian based Castrol car with a 6.425 at 221.02.       Lee Paul Jennings shut the beautiful "Code Red II" off after the burnout.   In the other lane Jeff Bennett ran 6.442 at 212.26 in the Pure Heaven II Dodge.     Mendy Fry slowed to a 7.131 at 137.09 while Dennis La Charite ran 6.102 at 218.65.             Obviously La Charite missed on the tune-up.         Josh Crawford opened with a 6.175 at 235.47.     Mark Sanders and Kris Krabell gave the fans a show running 6.080 at 236.84 and 5.960 at 242.26 respectivly.             The final pair in Q1 was the Pleuger & Gyger car with Garrett Bateman in the seat and Bucky Austin in his Northwest Hitter.       Bateman went #1 with a 5.848 at 234.37 with Austin going #2 with a 5.889 at 233.40. It would be the last decent run for both of them.     Aaron 'Army' Armstrong completed his licensing runs on this pass so he would have one shot on Sunday.       Page 1 - Top Fuel Quaifying Session 1 Page 2 - Top Fuel Quaifying Session 2 Page 3 - Top Fuel Elimination Round 1 Page 4 - Top Fuel Eliminations Round 2 Page 5 - Top Fuel Semis & Final Page 7 - Funny Cars part 2 Page 8 - Everything Else     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