Clint Thompson Top Qualifier at Fallon
Fallon Nevada - The Lucas Oil race at Top Gun Raceway was greeted by a very tricky and treacherous racing surface. In fact, the left lane has a bump at about 175 feet which causes havoc with the high horsepower cars. As the number one qualifier in the Top Alcohol funny car class, invading Division 6racer Clint Thompson felt confident of having a good weekend after posting a6.05 ET which was good for the number one spot and low ET of the event. On Saturday’s final qualifying session, Thompson had the right lane which has four transitions between all the patches. He had no choice but to shut off early after severe tire shake.
In the first round of eliminations Clint received a bye run as there were only 7 ars in the field. On that run, Thompson posted a 6.44 ET but the car shook so hard it broke the transmission. Fortunately, the team was able to fix the transmission before facing Hank Coolidge in the semifinal round, but lost lane choice. It was a close race but Coolidge was able to get around Thompson with a slightly better ET as he got to the stripe first with a 6.15 to Thompson’s close 6.18.
Thompson will pick up the pieces and head off to the third of four races in a row. “Not all was lost as we did run 243.02 M.P.H. to set the track speed record on our 6.05 qualifying run. Now we’re off to Woodburn Dragstrip for the Fall Classic.” Thompson said. Following Woodburn, the Cascade Chevrolet team moves on to their home track, Champion Raceway, near Medford for the final Division 6 LODRS race of the season.
