14th O'Reilly Nationals
Houston, TX (Mar. 22-25)
Results | Notes
| Photos
NATIONALS NOTEBOOK:
Mike Dunn stuns drag racing world with the fastest speed in history
-- 331.61 mph. Superb run comes in Friday's first round of qualifying.
Dunn cannot back-up the speed within the required 1% for a new NHRA
national record however. He shrugs that off by putting the Gwynn &
Steinbrenner NY Yankees car into victory lane instead. Dunn beats Larry
Dixon on a hole-shot in a titanic final round battle between the number
one and two qualified cars. Dunn also has low ET at 4.534 secs. Dunn's
speed eclipses the 330.23 mph set by Tony Schumacher early in 1999.
Del Worsham has career event in Funny Car. Not only does he qualify
his Checker-Schuck's-Kragen Pontiac Firebird on the pole with a career
best 4.810 secs (low ET) he also steamrolls over the field. Del beats
non other then John Force in the final round -- leaving first and going
quicker and faster then the 10X champion.
NHRA's Pro Stock Bike class has it's first winner of the 2001 season
and it is defending Winston Champion Angelle Savoie who draws first
blood. Savoie dominates Matt Hines in the final round aboard George
Bryce's Star Racing/Team Winston Suzuki. Angelle's win is the 16th of
her career and moves her to within 2 wins of Shirley Muldowney's all
time NHRA event winning mark for a lady racer.
Pro Stock Bike field at Houston is drag racing's quickest ever with
a bump spot of 7.376 secs. Antron Brown has low ET in the class at 7.167
secs but is sent packing by Angelle in the semis. Runner-up Matt Hines
has top speed at 188.54 mph.
Pro Stock Truck racing see the 7.40 secs barrier broken for the first
time as Greg Stanfield goes 7.395 secs and 7.396 secs in rounds one
and two to rewrite the national ET record driving his Chevy S-10. The
final round however features the class two big dogs -- Randy Daniels
and Bob Panella. Daniels wins for the second time this season and Panella
rewrites the PST speed record for the second time in two races -- this
time to 182.40 mph.
Top Fuel racing sees legendary Chris "Greek" Karamesines
qualify on the bubble with his first career four seconds elapsed time
which are the quickest of his long career. In round however Karamesines,
who is "70-something" smokes his tires and is no match for
the rampaging Mike Dunn. Tuner Glen Mikres helps choreograph Karamesines
career quick performance.
Warren Johnson silences his driving critics in Pro Stock when he carves
out a .411 light in the final round to defeat Mark Pawuk in a battle
of 2001 Pontiac Grand-Ams. Warren also has low ET of the meet a 6.830
secs. PS qualifying is paced by Mike Edwards who drives the Ron Krisher
Racing #2 car (sponsored by Young Life) to the pole. The normally slick
and steady Edwards however has a tardy .559 RT in round one and loses
to #16 qualifier Jeg Coughlin. Pro Stock racing at Houston is a quick
all 6.8 secs affair.
Rick Santos maintains his amazing pace and record in FMD as he wins
for the 32nd time in his career. In typical Santos fashion he has low
ET of the event at 5.327 secs which helps to keep his undefeated 2001
season intact. Santos does however have to outrun determined Texan Joe
Fuentes in the final round. Another Texan, Todd Simpson avenges that
for the homestate crowd however by winning in FMFC.
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