NEFF, ENGELS AND SKILLMAN LEAD JOLIET QUALIFYING

Sportsman qualifying opened the 14th Annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA National Event in Joliet Ill., on Thursday with a score of impressive performances.

With two rounds of Competition Eliminator complete, Clint Neff of Arvada, Co., was able to improve upon his first session qualifying time keeping his ’23 T-Ford in the number one position running.  Neff ran a 7.837 elapsed time, -0.623 under the 8.46 K/A index.  Two pairs later, Mike DePalma of Glendale, Arizona gave Neff a run for the money as he also ran -0.623 under his I/SM index in his ’89 Trans Am.

Frank Aragona Jr. made a significant jump in the qualifying order after the second session bettering his first session run with a 8.115 elapsed time on the F/ED 8.72 index, -0.602 under moving him from the twenty-fifth position to the number three position just behind Neff and DePalma.

Competition eliminator has another qualifying session scheduled for Friday afternoon.
 
After three completed qualifying sessions of Super Stock, the SS/BX ’57 Corvette of Doug Engels claimed the number one position.  Engels, of Watertown, South Dakota, went -1.100 under the 10.55 index posting a 9.450 elapsed time.

Indiana natives Ray Skillman and Irvan Johns hold the number two and three positions in Super Stock.  Skillman also ran over one second under his respective SS/BA index in his ’10 Mustang. Johns came close with a -0.975 performance under the GT/CA index.

Two top finishers in the world last year in the Super Stock category currently reside in the bottom half   of this sixty-nine car field.  Lincoln Morehead, last year’s number two finisher, is 69th  while Brad Zaskowski, last year’s number three finisher finds himself thirty-seventh.

With three qualifying rounds of Stock in the books, the AA/SA ’10 Mustang driven by Drew Skillman holds the number one position running a 9.448 elapsed time, -1.152 under the 10.60 index.  Charlie Fitzsimmons and Bo Butner find themselves number two and number three both also running over one second under their respective indexes.

Irvin Johns, who currently sits in the number three position in Super Stock, holds the number five position in Stock as he drives double-duty this weekend at Joliet.  The A/SA ’10 Challenger of John’s claimed the number five position after running 10.040 elapsed time on the 11.00 index, -0.960 under.

Sportsman qualifying resumes Friday at 8 AM, CST.

< Prev		Next >