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Greg Anderson held onto the top spot in Pro Stock through Saturday's two sessions. (NHRA photo) ยป More Photos
Qualifying for the 39th annual Lucas Oil SuperNationals concluded on Saturday at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in New Jersey as the fields were set in all four Pro classes. Friday’s low qualifiers -- Antron Brown, Jim Head, Greg Anderson and Chris Rivas -- all managed to maintain their leads in Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle, respectively.
The warm and sunny weather held performances in check for the most part, although PSM low qualifier Rivas did improve on his career best with a 6.923 in the first session. Rod Fuller made the quickest Top Fuel run of the day with a 4.60 and Jason Line made a pair of solid Pro Stock passes with a pair of 6.62 runs. Points leader Tim Wilkerson led Saturday’s Funny Car runs with a 4.863 in the Levi, Ray & Shoup entry.
Brown, who entered the day as the provisional low qualifier in Top Fuel, made the second quickest pass of the day with a 4.639 in the Matco Tools dragster, just behind his David Powers Motorsports teammate, Rod Fuller, who turned in an outstanding 4.60 in the late afternoon, when conditions were at their hottest.
Brandon Bernstein, Doug Foley and Dave Grubnic, ended up ranked second, third, and fourth, respectively. Todd Paton, who made just one run, is qualified No. 15; J.R. Todd is on the bump spot with a 4.98 and will be paired with Brown in round one.
The top spots in Funny Car also did not change as Head secured the pole position for just the second time in his long career. Head posted a 4.803 on Friday night.
The running order for the top half of the field remained the same as Ashley Force, John Force, Robert Hight, Del Worsham, Melanie Troxel, Ron Capps and Bob Tasca III round out the top eight qualifiers.
While Anderson maintained the top spot in Pro Stock with Friday night’s 6.599 clocking, it was his Summit Racing Equipment teammate, Jason Line, who set the pace on Saturday with a 6.620 that was good for the sixth spot overall and a 6.629 which was the quickest run of the final session.
"I feel good going into tomorrow,” said Anderson, who has now qualified in the top spot four time in the last six years in Englishtown. “This is better than we’ve felt in a long time but I’m still expecting a knock down, drag out fight. We’ve had great cars all year but we got a bit lost. When the tracks got hot, we lost our tune-up and now it looks like we’ve figured it out. Jason made a couple of great runs today so he’s back as well.
“It
Chicago winner Kurt Johnson held on to the No. 2 spot, ahead of his father, Warren, who is third with a 6.605. Ron Krisher is fourth and Allen Johnson has the field’s quickest Dodge with a fifth-best 6.618.
There was very little movement in Pro Stock outside of the four spots that are reserved for day two qualifiers. In addition to Line, V. Gaines, Vinnie Deceglie and Johnny Gray were also able to secure their positions in the field today.
Deceglie, the former Comp ace who made the move to Pro Stock earlier this season, qualified for his first field after leasing an engine from Allen Johnson recently.
Rivas maintained his stranglehold on the top spot in Pro Stock Motorcycle and actually improved upon his career best with a 6.923 in the early session. The Joliet champ came back to run a 6.949 in the late afternoon and has made the quickest run in three of the four qualifying sessions.
“Two in a row is great but it’s not enough,” said Rivas. “Hopefully this is going to become a habit. We’ve been making really good runs lately and we just need to keep doing it. A big part of the equation is Derrell Mullis, who is the engineer at G-Squared. He figured a few things out recently and every since, we’ve had an incredible machine.
“We accomplished a lot today,” Rivas continued. “I ran a new career best this morning and then we ran a 6.94 in the afternoon, which was the first run on a new tire. We’re a dangerous team right now and the other teams know it. They can see the writing on the wall.”
Chip Ellis made an impressive run in the heat of the day with a 6.937 on the Schumacher Electric Suzuki that was good for the second spot while Matt Smith was also consistent with a third-best 6.952. Angelle Sampey made one of the biggest moves of the day with a 6.956 that has her seeded fourth. Andrew Hines leads the Harley-Davidson effort with a 6.973 that is good for the No. 5 spot.
The Pro Stock Motorcycle field will include a Kawasaki motorcycle for the first time in several years as Ryan Schnitz claimed the last spot with a 7.44 aboard Rob Muzzy’s Trim-Tex entry. Road to the Future candidate Junior Pippin was the field’s lone non-qualifier.
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