Ahra Real Drag For Force

Not much has gone wrong for John Force this season.

Until last night, that is.

Force, who is well on his way to a sixth National Hot Rod Association world championship, has won nine of 12 races he’s entered and finished as runnerup in two others.

But Force was upstaged by his teammate Tony Pedregon in final-round qualifying for today’s 34th running of the AHRA World Finals at Spokane Raceway Park.

Pedregon locked up the No. 1 qualifying spot with a 5.67-second pass to edge out Force’s early afternoon run of 5.71.

Pedregon and Force met in the last round of funny car qualifying, but as Force did his burnout, sparks shot from the headers of his Castrol funny car.

Knowing something was wrong, but also being the showman he is, Force attempted to run anyway.

“We came to give the fans a show and I think I gave them a motor in the process,” Force said. The damage appears to be minor and limited to cooked valves.

While Force went backwards, Pedregon showed a big improvement from his 7.39-second pass on Friday. “We made the right adjustments and didn’t have the tires spin like last night,” he said.

It top fuel qualifying, Odessa’s Craig Smith bettered his afternoon pass of 5.36 with a 5.31 in the evening round. Smith, too, experienced problems in Friday’s qualifying, but made some simple adjustments to cut well over a second off his elapsed time.

“We loosened the clutch and that’s about it,” said Smith, who is trying to dial the car in in just its second race of the season.

Chicago’s Bobby Baldwin picked up two-tenths of a second over his afternoon run of 5.67, clocking a 5.47 to remain in second place.

Spokane’s Brett Hordemann went out during the 1 p.m. qualifying session and moved from nowhere to the third-quickest in the Pro-Alcohol dragster field with a 6.64 elapsed time.

The run in Larry Van Unen’s car was costly, however. As the crew went over the car after the run, their checkup revealed substantial engine damage, forcing Hordemann to withdraw the car.

“We had good power and had a chance to go some rounds,” Hordemann said.

Instead of getting to rest easy, Hordemann found himself unloading his Super Pro bracket car and entering it as an alternate. Hordemann’s 7.38 pass, coupled with bad luck by Downa Kraus and Neil Lachelt, got Hordemann into today’s race as the final qualifier in the 8-car field.

Edmonton’s Bryan Davidchuck remained the No. 1 qualifier in Pro Alcohol dragster using his Friday night pass of 6.28 to lead the field. Spokane driver Chris Denison (6.66) is in the No. 4 spot. Another Spokane driver, Tim Eickstadt (7.37) is in the No. 7 spot.

John Knox, of Lacey, Wash., tops Pro Alcohol funny car qualifiers with a 6.52. Forest LeBlanc is in second.

Today’s schedule

Gates open at 8 a.m. today with Sportsmen eliminations beginning at 11. First round of pro eliminations begin at 1 p.m.