NHRA Drag Racing -Sunday from IRP

INDIANAPOLIS RACEWAY PARK, INDIANAPOLIS
May 19, 2002

MOTHER NATURE 2, NHRA NORTH CENTRAL DIVISION 0

        INDIANAPOLIS - The late rounds of eliminations in the NHRA Lucas
Oil Drag Racing Series event at Indianapolis Raceway Park have been
postponed until Thursday, July 4.  Officials from the division opted to
postpone the event after getting rain late in the afternoon.
        "Once it finally stopped raining and we were drying the track, the
sun went down and the temperature dropped so we couldn't dry the track to
our satisfaction," said North Central Division Director Jay Hullinger.  "We
started with 618 cars and got down to about 130 so we made progress while
it was dry.  We'll just come back and finish later."
        Drivers in Top Alcohol Dragster, Top Alcohol Funny Car and Comp
Eliminator all ran one round of elimination.  Each of the other five
classes got in two rounds.
        While the first round of TAFC went pretty much as expected, TAD was
full of upsets.  The No. 8 qualifier, Ben Marshall, beat No. 1 qualifier
Russ Lindert.  Defending division champion Bill Reichert was beaten by Jeff
Bohr and Dave Hirata, who is among the fastest cars in the class, also lost
in the first round.
        North Central Division competitors have yet to complete an event. 
The division's season-opener at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., was also
postponed due to bad weather.  It will resume the weekend of July 20.

        The following are the results of Round 1 of eliminations in TAD and
TAFC from the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Indianapolis
Raceway Park:

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER
Round 1
8) Ben Marshall, New Carlisle, Ohio, 5.577, 264.08 def. 1) Russ Lindert,
Manteno, Ill., 5.727, 220.10
2) Ken Perry, Gormley, Ont., Can., 5.423, 259.36 def. 7) Dave Hirata,
Lowell, Ind., 12.528, 56.57
6) Jeff Bohr, Plymouth, Mich., 5.526, 254.45 def. 3) Bill Reichert, Owosso,
Mich., 7.708, 124.80
5) Shawn Bowen, Montrose, Mich., 5.478, 257.28 def. 4) Keith Stark,
Danville, Ill., 5.698, 257.65


TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR 
Round 1
TAFC pairings for Sunday's first round of eliminations
1) Marc White, Glendale Hts., Ill., '01 Firebird, 5.709, 251.32 def. 6)
John Reikas III, Glendale Hts., Ill., '97 Camaro, 6.332, 220.80
2) Chuck Cheeseman, Galena, Ohio, '01 Firebird, 5.724, 248.61 def. 5) Steve
Addleman, Fishers, Ind., '01 Pontiac, no show
3) Todd Veney, Indianapolis, '98 Firebird, 5.985, 236.53 def. 4) Kim
Fritts, Greenup, Ill., '98 Firebird, broke