Skuza Beats Force; Rain Postpones Activity
Mopar Motorsports NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Lucas Oil Products NHRA Nationals Pacific Raceways Notes & Quotes July 28, 2002 TELEVISION TIMES: (ALL TIMES EASTERN) FINAL ROUND: Sun., July 28; 56 p.m.; ESPN FINAL ROUND: Sun., July 28; 8-10 p.m.; ESPN2 MORRISON, Colo. -- Mopar Motorsports NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series teams completed eliminations for this weekend¹s Lucas Oil Products NHRA Nationals at Pacific Raceways. NOTABLE Rain halted action and postponed today¹s Lucas Oil Products NHRA Nationals. Racing in the Fuel categories are slated for tomorrow starting at 10:30 a.m., WST. DEAN SKUZA, driver of the Mopar Parts Dodge Stratus R/T Dean Skuza and the Mopar Parts Dodge Stratus R/T Nitro Funny Car continued his mastery over 11-time Nitro Funny Car World Champion John Force. Skuza took home a third-straight round victory over Force and his fourth in the last five meetings. Skuza ran low elapsed time of the round at 4.962 seconds and 303.50 mph. Force smoked the tires and crossed the finish line in 7.152 seconds. ³The longer John Force is on the track, the better that team gets,² Skuza said. ³He just doesn¹t make a mistake unless it¹s in the first round. That¹s when you might see him make a miscue. Unfortunately, there¹s the intimidation factor with John Force out there. Other teams beat themselves¹ out there. ³With us, there¹s not any intimidation,² Skuza added. ³We just try to run our race. It sounds like a cliché, but we try to go just as fast as we can. We don¹t want to beat ourselves. If he beats us, you go shake his hand and say, Œgood race.¹ With rain ceasing activity, Skuza matches up tomorrow with Cruz Pedregon in round two. GENE WILSON, driver of the Mopar Parts Dodge Neon R/T An unusual first round match with Larry Nance ended in a red light for Mopar Parts Dodge Neon R/T rookie Gene Wilson. As rain threatened to end today¹s activities prematurely, Wilson and Nance¹s 105-second burn down did not please NHRA starter Rick Stewart. Stewart asked the duo to step back and wait for other pairs to run. One of the many rain delays halted activity before the two went back onto the starting line. On the second go around, Wilson staged early, brought up the rev limiter, and left before it chimed green. It was Wilson¹s first red-light loss of the season. ³Not the day I was looking for,² said a visibly upset Wilson. ³We got up there after out burn down and I thought I had cut a good light. I don¹t know - it went red. There¹s really nothing I can say. ³It was one of those things,² commented Wilson on the burn down. ³You try to play and have an advantage over your competitor. Whatever it takes, that¹s what we¹ll do. No hard feeling between either one of us. Its just part of Pro Stock racing. We¹ll do it if we need to.² LARRY MORGAN, driver of the Mopar Parts Dodge Neon R/T Larry Morgan and the blue Mopar Parts Dodge Neon R/T fell in the first round of competition to point leader Jim Yates. After posting his best qualifying effort since a third at Memphis (Tenn.) Motorsports Park in 2000, Morgan clocked a 6.888-second elapsed time at 199.91 mph. Yates drove to a quicker 6.857-second lap at 200.65 mph. ³It sure was slick out there,² Morgan said. ³We spun the tires so hard that I was pushing 9,600 rpm when I crossed the finish line. It was just the luck of the draw that we went out first. We had no idea which lane was better or what. We had a great weekend though.²