The latest update as of October 30, 2023

We've got photos from Saturday's third qualifying session, starting with Top Alcohol Funny Car, then continuing with Pro Stock, Top Fuel and Funny Car.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - QUALIFYING SESSION #3 (FINAL)

(LEFT) Making his national debut at this event, Will Martin has been impressing everyone on each trip down the quarter. With only a few test sessions under his belt and the Bakersfield Western Regional under his belt, he came here and ran a 5.70 off the trailer, followed by a 5.69 last night before hitting new career best numbers on this run, with a 5.632 - 256.50 showing on the scoreboard.

(RIGHT) All the way down from Alaska, veteran Ray Martin (no relation to Will) knocked nearly a tenth off his best run on Friday, hitting a 5.706 - 257.04 on this pass, but remained in the #13 position at the bottom of the ladder.

(LEFT) Perennial long distance award winners, if there was still such an award, the Leanders brothers, with Ulf Leanders driving, stepped up slightly to a new best for the weekend of 5.543 - 260.25. It was only three hundredths quicker than Friday's numbers, but it moved them up four spots and into the top half of the field.

(RIGHT) Indiana's Chip Beverett showed good consistency on this run, running less than a hundredth slower than his earlier 5.558, stopping the timers at 5.565 - 263.77 to hold on to the #10 spot in the tightly bunched field.

It's difficult to believe that it's been five years since Hunter Jones made his national event debut at this event, as the car still looks like a brand new race car. While they don't run too many races each year, and only race in the western part of the country, they are serious racers and have regularly run in the 5.50's this season. On this pass he laid down a solid 5.658 - 258.57, good for the #12 spot on the ladder.

(LEFT) Double trouble with double Whiteley's racing at this event. Since joining the alcohol floppers at Brainerd last year, Jim Whiteley has steadily improved, and nearly broke through for his first national event win in a funny car a few weeks ago at Dallas. Here he was off the throttle early after a sluggish launch, and coasted to a 7-second clocking. However, his Friday best of 5.549 - 257.38 left him in the #8 spot.

(RIGHT) Moving in the other direction, performance-wise was Jim's wife Annie Whiteley, as she dropped into the 5.40's with a very strong 5.465 - 266.53 that vaulted her from #5 to the top of the list in the #1 spot. Whether that number would hold up as low e.t. of qualifying appeared debatable as six very heavy hitters remained in the staging lanes ready to run.

(LEFT) It was another good run for Brian Hough with a 5.584 - 257.83 result, but it was a tad slower than his earlier best of 5.552, leaving him in the #9 position going into eliminations. Even though he was in the bottom half of the field, his first round opponent would only be a few hundredths quicker than Hough's qualifying e.t.

(RIGHT) Since the passing of team owner Rick Jackson, the car has only run sporadically this season, but with former world champion Shane Westerfield driving, is always very competitive. It showed on this run as Shane dipped into the 5.40's with a strong 5.496 - 262.08 that solidified his hold on the #4 spot in the field.

(LEFT) Already crowned the 2023 World Champion, Doug Gordon continued his "farewell tour" with a great 5.499 - 265.38 to slot in right behind Westerfield in the #5 rung on the ladder. With just one regional and one national event on his schedule before handing the driving chores over to Maddi Gordon for the 2024 season, Gordon was hoping to go deep into eliminations as he concludes his driving career.

(RIGHT) With the championship chase over, Sean Bellemeur and the "Killer B's" were able to concentrate on running hard and it showed as they virtually duplicated their previous best of the event, a 5.492, with a 5.493 - 263.37 to hold down the #3 spot in the tight field.

Even though it wasn't a full field, as sadly has been the norm this season in Top Alcohol Funny Car, the first five cars on the ladder ran in the 5.40's, while the next five were solidly in the 5.50's. Less than a tenth of a second separated the first ten racers in the field, and even the slowest car, Ray Martin's 5.706, was a competitive number going into the first round of eliminations later in the day.

PRO STOCK - QUALIFYING SESSION #3

With 22 cars in the pits, and just 16 slots available in the field, it was a foregone conclusion that qualifying would have some added pressure on everyone to run well enough to safely qualify for Sunday's eliminations. After Friday's two sessions, the bump spot was aleady down to a 6.657, and the #1 qualifier, Erica Enders was the only driver in the 6.50's, with a 6.595 e.t. The gap between first and last was seven hundredths of a second and the first four alternates were all within five hundredths of making it into the field.

Following Friday's second qualifying session, the NHRA technical department disqualified the runs made in that session by four of the Elite Performance team cars. The reason given was an unapproved modification to the wiring on the Leahy automatic shutoff system. Whether the dq's would affect the balance of qualifying remained to be seen. As a consequence of the removal of their elapsed times, the Elite cars ran at the start of the session, instead of later as would normally happen. All four racers ran quicker in that second session, and all but Enders lost at least one position on the ladder.

(LEFT) Leading off the session was returning veteran Jeg Coughlin Jr., already qualified but wanting to be higher up the chart than his current #13 spot. He did just that with a very good 6.630 - 206.54 to move up to the #9 spot, just outside the top half of the field.

(RIGHT) One of the Elite Performance team, Jerry Tucker came into the session clinging to the #15 spot with a Friday best of 6.551, but didn't get far before giving up on this attempt. Massive tire shake forced him to shut off and idle down track to a 13-second time.

(LEFT) With the FlexJet Factory Stock Showdown championship in his pocket, Aaron Stanfield was hoping to make it a double dip as he was still in contention for the Pro Stock too. Sitting in the #10 position, with a good 6.636 - 206.73, Stanfield picked up two thousandths but remained in the same position, in the bottom half of the field.

(RIGHT) It's been another long difficult season for the only MOPAR competitor, but New Jersey's Alan Prusiensky keeps working towards making enough power to qualify. In the nine events he's attended this year, he's only made into eliminations once, and that was on the bubble. But he's out here trying to improve, but went in the other direction on this attempt, slowing to a 6.801 - 202.03 from a previous best of 6.763, leaving him at the bottom of the 22-car list.

(LEFT) Looking like she was on a good run, Erica Enders launched well, but ran into problems at half track and slowed to a 7.141 - 150.28. She was still holding the #1 postion however, and the only driver into the 6.50-zone going into the final session later in the day.

(RIGHT) Erica's arch-rival, Greg Anderson, went backwards in this session, slowing to a 6.668 - 205.19 after running 6.620 in Friday's first session. He was still sitting in the #6 spot at the end of the session.

It's been a very tough season for the Harlow - Sammons team from Texas, as the father-son team of Chris and Mason McGaha struggled to qualify at times, and between them have rung up just six round wins all year. And half of them were from the season opening Gatornationals, where young Mason went to the final round. This run was typical of Chris's season, as a 6.668 - 204.76, three thousandths slower than his Friday number, left him in the #17 position, just a hundredth of a second short of qualifying.

Having an even tougher time than the McGaha's is the senior member of the Caudra team, Fernando Caudra Sr.. While his sons have enjoyed some success this year, notably Cristian, who sits in the tenth spot in the standings, Fernando Sr. has only qualified four times in sixteen events, and failed to register a round win. He came into this session on the bump spot, but picked up just enough to climb to #15, with a 6.650 - 205.69 timeslip.

The next member of the "Corral Boots" team fell back a little on performance but was still able to hang on to the #12 spot, with his earlier 6.645 - 206.76. He fell off by just a hundredth of a second, but showed consistency.

(LEFT) Sitting in the middle of the field in the #8 spot, Troy Coughlin Jr. didn't improve on his Friday best of 6.623, but made a good pass, just slightly slower than his previous efforts.

(RIGHT) Near the top of the qualifying list, in #5 was Bo Butner, with a 6.619 - 206.73, fell back just a tad to a 6.623. Again, it was a consistent run and a good setup for Sunday's eliminations.

Feeling the pressure to maintain his challenge for the season championship, Matt Hartford sat in the #3 position coming into the session, and finished in the same spot. He laid down the quickest run of the session - so far - with a very good 6.623 - 205.94 that was just a little slower than Friday's best e.t. of 6.608.

Yet another consistent, but slightly slower run was the story here as Fernando Caudra Jr. held his #7 position in the field with a 6.627 - 197.54. His earlier 6.621 was just a few ticks quicker.

Emerging from the seriously smokey background, Kyle "Kid Kaos" Koretsky laid down the quickest pass of the session, a great 6.609 - 205.88. He ran slightly quicker at 6.603 on Friday, and that put him in the #2 position, behind only Erica Enders and her first session 6.595 pass.

After dominating the class up until the U.S. Nationals, with four wins in six final round appearances at the first eleven races, Dallas Glenn has seen his fortunes slide. Starting the Countdown to The Championship at the top of the points standings, he lost that lead with a first round loss at the opening race of the countdown. Since then, two runnerups and one more early exit saw him come into Vegas in the #3 position, and still heavily involved in the championship conversation. He made the second quickest run of this session, a 6.610 - 205.54 that was one thousandth quicker than his previous runs, solidly ensconced in the #4 spot on the ladder.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE- QUALIFYING SESSION #3

We only have one photo from this session, and it's Angie Smith, making her single qualifying pass to get into the 16-bike field. Even though she's still recovering from her devastating crash at St. Louis, she was able to get on the replacement motorcycle and take an easy 12-second pass to grab some points to keep her in the Top Ten in the standings.

TOP FUEL- QUALIFYING SESSION #3

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FUNNY CAR- QUALIFYING SESSION #3

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