Krabill checks out in Funny Car final
| Saturday, Mar 26 2011 08:28 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Mar 26 2011 08:28 PM
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One of the top funny car contenders, Saturday at Famoso Raceway was Jason Ruper, as he does a burnout at the starting line during the March Meet final day.
Top fuel driver Denver Schutz, waits at the starting line Saturday for his turn down the track at Famoso Raceway, during the March Meet competition.
Top fueler Jason Rupert gears up for his afternoon run down the track at Famoso Raceway during the March Meet, Saturday.
Funny car driver Kris Krabill gets a good start Saturday afternoon at Famoso Raceway in Gary Turner's Pedaler car, during the March Meet event.
Top fueler Brett Harris takes care of business at the starting line before his race Saturday afternoon at Famoso Raceway.
Top fuel driver Brett Harris and his crew are busy on the starting line, Saturday, at Famoso Raceway.
Top fuel driver Jim Murphy inches his way up to the starting line, Saturday, at the March Meet which is held each year at Famoso Raceway.
The Famoso Raceway track crew kept the cars running during Saturday's March Meet event.
Kris Krabill figured he had one shot at winning his first March Meet nostalgia Funny Car title.
So he took a shot on the starting line.
Krabill's superior reaction time at the start propelled him to victory Saturday at Auto Club Famoso Raceway as the rain-delayed March Meet came to a conclusion.
"I've won all the majors except this one," Krabill said. "To be able to win here at the March Meet is incredible."
About an hour later, Rick White added his name to a long list of Top Fuel champions as he beat two-time winner Brett Harris for the title.
White had the quickest run at 5.65 seconds heading into the finals while Harris had the fastest at 262.08.
White got the jump on the starting line and simply powered away for a a convincing victory at 5.70 and 259.21. Harris ran 5.78 but was a full two-tenths of a second back at the finish due to his starting line disadvantage.
"We've been trying to do this a long time," said White. "This is not easy to do. I know that."
But White made it look easy as he mowed down his competition.
"It was great,"he said of his performance. "We had two back-to-back weekends that were unbelievable. Our slowest run was a 5.70. Everything was working right. All the parts were staying in the car and we were going lap after lap."
Krabill's quick reaction time on the starting line proved to be the difference as his slower 5.902 run at 242.41 mph beat Jason Rupert's quicker 5.824 run at 250.78.
"You know that's something as a driver you take pride in," Krabill, 35, said of getting the jump off the line. "That's the one thing you can do. Obviously, driving the car correctly is kind of important. But it's you against the other guy on the starting line so it is the one thing you can control: the starting line."
Krabill got a big jump off the the starting line -- .087 better than Rupert, but Rupert -- who was No. 1 qualifier and had the lowest elapsed time in every round -- quickly powered ahead. He led nearly the entire distance before Krabill raced by just before the finish line to win by third-five ten-thousandths of a second -- .0035.
Rupert led qualifying at 5.69 seconds, just .02 off the track record, and ran 5.72 in his win against Mike Halstead earlier on Saturday.
Krabill's best run at the March Meet had been 5.84.
"He definitely had the performance advantage the whole weekend," Krabill said of Rupert. "We kind of struggled a bit. I made some mistakes earlier on in qualifying. I knew it would take a good light to beat him and I told my guys that before we went up there. Luckily enough we were able to get it."
Jim Murphy's quest for a record fifth Top Fuel March Meet victory ended in a semifinal loss to Harris.
Josh Conrad of Bakersfield defeated fellow Bakersfield racer Morgan Wiggers to win the D Gas championship. David Howard of Bakersfield beat Bakersfield's Chris Fredikson to win the Hot Rod championship.
