Shane Westerfield stands on the cusp of his third NHRA Heritage Series Funny Car championship, and Friday’s No. 1 qualifying run, combined with his 195-point lead, put him one step closer.
Westerfield posted a 5.516-second elapsed time at 265.64 mph to secure the top spot. Joining him atop Friday’s leaderboard were Pete Kaiser in Top Fuel and Vince Karstetter in Fuel Altered.
Westerfield was unable to improve in Friday’s second session but stayed ahead of Todd Pilate, who recorded a 5.556 at 245.56 mph, and Jon Capps, who rounded out the 5.5-second group with a 5.559.
“It was great — stout pass,” Westerfield said. “Unfortunately, the day before in a test session, we were actually two-hundredths quicker at every increment on the run, with a wick on the engine that was a little short on that one, so it didn’t make it. That was probably about a .49 run in testing. That .51 lap, honestly, Bucky I think was trying to go .53 or .54, and it actually impressed us a little bit.
“Tonight’s run, really not sure what happened. I think it kind of moped the clutch a little bit. The air got better, the track got possibly tighter. I don’t know — I don’t tune this car. This is all Bucky and Kevin, those guys. But you know what, bottom line, we’ve got a real fast race car right now, and it’s good and consistent. It’s not hurting parts right now. We have more qualifying laps tomorrow to see how we do in the heat of the day, and then going into race day, I think we’ve got a good hot rod right now.”
Tony Jurado anchors the 16-car field with a 5.823.
Kaiser, who trails Top Fuel point leader and defending series champion Tyler Hilton by 48 points, got off to a strong start in Friday’s first session with a 5.742 run to take the provisional top spot. Tyler Hester sits second with a 5.768.
“It didn’t even leave hard and never really pulled, and I came back and the clutch was totally coming apart again,” Kaiser said. “The discs, all the pads were gone on two of the discs. Just really frustrated with this clutch disc problem right now. A lot of people are having it, and it’s definitely made its way into Heritage Series racing. It should have run about a .66 or .68, really.”
Karstetter leads the Fuel Altered division — the group closest to the 6.00 index — with a 6.052-second pass at 256.11 mph. Matthew Leonard (6.125) and Mark Whynaught (6.149) round out the top three.
“Yesterday [Thursday], we had our front end out of whack and a few things,” Karstetter said. “We scaled the car today. It was kind of out of balance, and we’re working through it. That was the seventh run we’ve made on the car, so we’re learning from scratch. But we’re working on all the bugs, and it’s coming around now.
“The motor’s happy, everything was totally happy, and we ran it really soft. Now I can drive the car. The steering wheel’s straight, the tires are straight, and we’re ready to rock and roll, so everything’s looking really good.”
Qualifying concludes Saturday in all three nitro divisions, with Funny Car eliminations beginning later in the day following one final qualifying session.
