At
the beginning of the year, Team YNOT had very high hopes for the 2007 season.
Norm Grimes had been hired to be the crew chief and a new team had been put together.
Grimes had put a great deal of time into getting the Chip Nielsen dragster up to
speed with his combination. Preseason testing had gone well, and expectations
were high as the team went to
Pomona. Going into the final
qualifying session at the season opening Carquest Auto Parts NHRA
Winternationals, things were going according to plan; the car was qualified very
solidly in the field and conditions, though somewhat cool, showed the potential
for a very strong pass and moving back to the top half of the field.
At
the beginning of the year, Team YNOT had very high hopes for the 2007 season.
Norm Grimes had been hired to be the crew chief and a new team had put together.
Grimes had put a great deal of time into getting the Chip Nielsen dragster up to
speed with his combination. Preseason testing had gone well, and expectations
were high as the team went to
Pomona. Going into the final
qualifying session at the season opening Carquest Auto Parts NHRA
Winternationals, things were going according to plan;the car was qualified very
solidly in the field and conditions, though somewhat cool, showed the potential
for a very strong pass and moving back to the top half of the field.
Fate intervened in a cruel way, however, when Jim Whiteley was bucked off his favorite “horse” that
Friday night. The car was destroyed on the final qualifying run when it got away
from driver/owner Whiteley and made heavy contact with both guard walls and
ended up sliding upside down, backwards, and on fire, into the dark
Pomona shutdown area. Whiteley emerged from the crash unscathed,
Now
after nearly three months Team YNOT is getting ready to get back on a new horse.
After the accident, Whiteley and Grimes and team CFO Dirk Olsen discussed buying
pre-owned cars from other teams, fixing the current car, or having a new car
built. A quick phone call from the track to chassis builder Chip Nielsen gave
the team the answer to that question.
Order a new car. Nielsen had a
new car already on the jig, one he was building it to have for stock. So the
team secured the car, and Whiteley spoke with Nielsen about a couple of changes
he wanted made in the cockpit area, and Grimes also wanted some changes made to
other parts of the car. With those
changes made, the car was sent to Grimes So
Cal shop the third week of April,
with the plan to be at Fontana and
the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Division Seven Event on May 4-6, 2007