Morgan Lucas, the pilot of the powerful NHRA Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster, rallied in qualifying for the third annual Chevy Bodine Bobsled Challenge presented by Whelen in taking the No. 2 qualifying position with a total time of 1:48.25 (54.29 -53.96 seconds) just barely behind perennial favorite, Boris Said by just a scant time of .23-hundredths of a second.  Said paced the field with a quick run down the mountain of 1:48.02.

“The qualifying runs went pretty well today with the exception of one area of the track I had to fight,” said Lucas.  “I’m hoping they are going to work on the sled tonight, but it’s still competitive by all means.  Once I get turn 14 of the track figured out I will be a lot better off.  When you come out of that section you have to keep the sled low, but at the same time you want to keep it off the inner wall.  The problem I’m having right now is my sled wants to go too much to the left in the chicane and it’s really hard to make go where I want.  It slows you down a lot and breaks your momentum.”

It will be a busy race day for Lucas and his drag racing teammate, J.R. Todd, the driver of the Torco Race Fuels/Seelye Wright Top Fuel railer, who had a harrowing experience during his morning practice runs. Morgan Lucas, the pilot of the powerful NHRA Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster, rallied in qualifying for the third annual Chevy Bodine Bobsled Challenge presented by Whelen in taking the No. 2 qualifying position with a total time of 1:48.25 (54.29 -53.96 seconds) just barely behind perennial favorite, Boris Said by just a scant time of .23-hundredths of a second.  Said paced the field with a quick run down the mountain of 1:48.02.

“The qualifying runs went pretty well today with the exception of one area of the track I had to fight,” said Lucas.  “I’m hoping they are going to work on the sled tonight, but it’s still competitive by all means.  Once I get turn 14 of the track figured out I will be a lot better off.  When you come out of that section you have to keep the sled low, but at the same time you want to keep it off the inner wall.  The problem I’m having right now is my sled wants to go too much to the left in the chicane and it’s really hard to make go where I want.  It slows you down a lot and breaks your momentum.”

It will be a busy race day for Lucas and his drag racing teammate, J.R. Todd, the driver of the Torco Race Fuels/Seelye Wright Top Fuel railer, who had a harrowing experience during his morning practice runs.

“It’s a pretty tight field this year,” said Todd, who crashed in practice during one of his runs in the morning session, but collected the No. 6 position in overall qualifying with his time of 1:49.42.  “Getting on my head this morning made it a little sketchy for me right afterwards, but we came back in qualifying and ended up in the middle of the pack.  I’m looking forward to getting out there on Saturday hoping to find some magic in keeping up with Morgan and Boris.

“I’m having tons of fun doing this.  I think it’s better than last year.  We have a lot more people this year, especially the drag racers being involved with Morgan, Jeg (Coughlin), Phil (Burkart) and Bob (Vandergriff).  It’s a load of fun getting together with those guys and there’s no pressure because this is all about having fun.  It brings awareness to Bobsledding and we’re having the time of lives up here.”

Lucas is the leading drag racing bobsledder and in his second season of participating in the Chevy Bodine Bobsled Challenge has caught the Olympic spirit and wants to spread the news about this great event

“This whole deal is about having fun and raising awareness and funding for the Olympic Bobsledders,” said Lucas.  “My parents came up today and surprised me when I found out they were here to see it all. 

“I feel really good about going into competition tomorrow.  Boris, despite using my sled to run his quick time, has been a wealth of information teaching me how to react to certain situations in the sled.  It’s the same with J.R. and myself, just like this season when we will sharing information after every run to get the most out of our dragsters.  It’s really nice to relate and offer info to your teammate and likewise, what he tells me what happens on his runs.  It’s been a blast to do and I wish I could take everyone I know on a ride in one of these bobsleds, so they can understand and feel how much fun this really is.”

SPEED TV will broadcast the overall head-to-head race on Sunday, Jan. 20 with the NHRA vs. NASCAR on Jan. 27, following the finish of the 24-hours of Daytona.