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| · 2013 Daytona 500 (Unlimited): NASCAR Sprint Cup Final Practice Results - Hamlin, Toyota Fastest! (Feb 15, 2013)
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· 2013 Formula One F1 Driver Line-up, Rumor Round-up & 2014 Silly Season Rumors - February 9th (Feb 9, 2013)
· 2013 Jerez: Formula One F1 Friday Test Results - Raikkonen, Lotus Fastest! (Feb 8, 2013)
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2013 NHRA: B. Force Drives Castrol Edge TF Into Show On Friday
Rookie Brittany Force put her Thursday struggles in the past and drove her Castrol EDGE Top Fuel dragster to the provisional No. 12 spot on Friday at the 53rd annual O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals. Yesterday a miscue with the brakes kept Force from making her first run when her 8,000 hp BOSS 500 motor pushed her dragster through the starting line beams before the Christmas Tree starting system was activated.
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Today there were no jitters from Force as she smoothly completed her burnout and staged beside Shawn Langdon and his Al-Anabi dragster. The Castrol EDGE Top Fueler launched hard and Force kept it in the middle of the groove posting a respectable 3.845 second, 293.22 mph run. The relief at the end of the day was obvious for the Automobile Club Road to the Future contender.
“My relief level is definitely a 10 on a 1-10 scale. I feel a lot better than I did yesterday when I left the track. You always want to get that first run out of the way. We struggled yesterday and didn’t get down the track. I feel a lot better that we got down there today. We ended up No. 12 so I am excited for tomorrow. We’ll go to work on this Castrol EDGE Top Fuel dragster and hopefully improve tomorrow,” said Force.
“With everything that happened yesterday I just wanted to get down to the finish line. I put everything out of my mind. I just drove it like I was testing in January in Florida.”
On the Funny Car side of the pits Courtney Force was the strongest JFR Mustang posting a 4.07 second run on Thursday which was No. 2 at the end of the day. Today she was the last car to go down the track as Gary Densham opted to sit out the Friday session. With nothing to lose and a cooling track crew chief Ron Douglas loaded up a strong tune-up into the Traxxas Mustang.
“Having a 4.07 behind us put us in a good spot. This Traxxas Ford Mustang team decided to push this car even harder to see what it could take. It stumbled a little right at the end. It started to spin the tires. From the looks of it and reading the computer and the time slip, it was definitely on a killer run in the low 0’s,” said Courtney Force.
“It doesn’t bring me down at all it just makes me more excited for tomorrow. I’m ready to get our third and fourth qualifying session out here on Saturday. Hopefully we can move up a little more. I think we ended up third today, but we learned something and we want to go for the No. 1 spot tomorrow.”
The 2012 Rookie of the Year only slipped to the provisional No. 3 spot after two days of qualifying.
Before the youngest Force made her second Funny Car run three-time Winternational winner Robert Hight continued to look for the right combination. His Auto Club Ford Mustang smoked the tires for the second day in a row but the team did see improvement on the computer data. His run of 6.658 was the 15th quickest run of the day.
The winningest Funny Car driver at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona John Force also battled to post a top twelve ET. For the 15-time champion there will be two more shots to race into the show. Today his Castrol GTX Mustang posted a time of 4.300 which was the 14th quickest of the 18 car Funny Car field.
The final day of qualifying will start tomorrow at 12:30 p.m.
THE DRIVERS
JOHN FORCE, 63, Castrol GTX Ford Mustang
Qualifying: 14th quickest at 4.300 seconds, 251.20 mph
Bonus Qualifying Points: 0
ROBERT HIGHT, 43, Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang
Qualifying: 15th quickest at 6,658 at 103.52 mph
Bonus Qualifying Points: 0
COURTNEY FORCE, 24, Traxxas Ford Mustang
Qualifying: 3rd at 4.071 seconds, 311.49 mph
Bonus Qualifying Points: +2 (second quickest of Q1)
BRITTANY FORCE, 26, Castrol EDGE Top Fuel Dragster
Qualifying: 12th at 3.845 seconds at 293.22 mph
Bonus Qualifying Points: 0
RACE SCHEDULE:
Saturday, February 16
3rd round qualifying 12:30 PM
4th round qualifying 2:30 PM
Sunday, February 17
Final Eliminations 11:00 AM
PaddockTalk Perspective
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