FRIDAY BRAINERD QUALIFYING
Bob Tasca III, Mike Edwards and Karen Stoffer also were qualifying leaders in their classes at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event, the 16th of 18 races in the NHRA regular season.
MCCLENATHAN, TASCA, EDWARDS AND STOFFER RACE TO QUALIFYING LEAD AT LUCAS OIL NHRA NATIONALS
Cory McClenathan raced to the Top Fuel qualifying lead Friday at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway.
Bob Tasca III, Mike Edwards and Karen Stoffer also were qualifying
leaders in their classes at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
event, the 16th of 18 races in the NHRA regular season.
McClenathan powered his FRAM dragster to a 3.910 second run at 305.36
mph to lead the field. By making a qualifying attempt earlier in the
day, McClenathan became the fifth driver in his category to secure a
top 10 position in the Countdown to 1, NHRA’s six-race championship
playoffs which begins Sept. 18 at zMax Dragway near Charlotte, N.C.
“I just can’t discount this team at all,” said McClenathan, who has 33
No. 1 qualifying positions in his career and earned his only one this
season at Bristol, Tenn. in May. “They’ve done such a good job for
being such a new team. A lot of emphasis was made at the beginning of
the season about the Al-Anabi team being completely different, but with
all my guys going to Tony [Schumacher’s team], this just goes to show
that [team owner] Don [Schumacher] made the right call. [Crew chiefs]
Todd [Okuhara] and Phil [Shuler], those guys have been around for a
long time. Towards the end of last year, they started spending a lot of
time with Mike Green, and I think that’s where they really picked up on
it. The window of opportunity in a dragster is bigger than a Funny Car,
and the guys are able to throw the whole trailer at it and take bigger
chances. I like that about these guys. I’m not afraid when we go up and
they say, ‘We’re going to be a little aggressive; we’re going to go for
it.’ I get excited when they say that. Every time you come out here as
a driver you want to do the best you can for them. I want to win a race
before we get to Indy and [the Countdown to the Championship] starts.
Todd, Phil and I all talked and we said we want to be in full stride by
the time we get there, and that’s still our goal.”
Antron Brown, winner of the last three races and current points leader,
was fifth overall in his Matco Tools dragster, posting a 3.947 at
304.46. Defending race winner and six-time world champ Schumacher was
second with a 3.926 at 300.53 in his U.S. Army dragster.
Tasca
led Funny Car with a performance of 4.214 at 282.01 in his
Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Ford Mustang, while defending series champ
Cruz Pedregon, who is in a tight battle to make it into the NHRA
playoffs, was second in his Advance Auto Parts Toyota Solara with a
4.238 at 283.79.
“I heard that Cruz took over the No. 1 spot [with a 4.238] while I was
in the staging lanes, and [crew chief] Chris [Cunningham] didn’t change
a thing,” Tasca said. “We then went out and got the No. 1 position back
with a 4.214. That meant that Chris was aggressive from the get-go and
had the car set up to run a low 4.20, and I admire him for that. Our
attitude is that we want to be in the top five of every session,
because that puts you in the position to win a lot of races. To be No.
1 in both rounds today was a real bonus. The improved track conditions
made a big difference. The sun came off the racing surface, and the
track came around, especially by the time that we ran at the end of the
session. If we had run in the first pair, we couldn’t have gone the
4.21.”
John Force, who has won a record 11 times at BIR, was third in his
Castrol GTX High-Mileage Mustang, posting a 4.245 at 281.19. Tony
Pedregon, who split with longtime crew chief Dickie Venables earlier in
the week, was fifth in his Q-Horsepower Chevy Impala, now tuned by Tony
Shortall.
Edwards continued his strong season in Pro Stock, posting a leading
effort of 6.732 at 204.94 in his ART/Young Life Pontiac GXP. If the time stands through tomorrow’s qualifying, it will be Edwards’ eighth No. 1 qualifying position of the season.
“Today was pretty good, and the first run of the day was actually
better than our afternoon pass, not just by the numbers, but with how
it looked on the computer," Edwards said. "We missed the tune-up a
little bit on the second run with a couple of adjustments that we made,
but my crew still did a great job overall today in making the right
calls. After the Western Swing, we needed to get all of our engines
back to the shop and freshened up. I think we might have taken a half
day off for a little bit of rest for ourselves, but that was about it.
This class is so tough with competition like Jeg Coughlin, the two
Summit cars, Allen Johnson, and the others. They don’t let up at all,
so that makes it a 24-7 deal for us.”
Johnson was second with a 6.741 at 204.26 in his J&J Racing/Team
Mopar Dodge Avenger, while Minnesota native Greg Anderson was third in
his Summit Racing GXP with a 6.742 at 204.01.
In
Pro Stock Motorcycle, Stoffer guided her GEICO Powersports Suzuki to
the top spot with a 7.084 at 187.57. Hector Arana clocked the same time
on his Lucas Oil Buell, but was second by virtue of his slower speed of
187.52.
“It’s really nice to have a good pass,” said Stoffer, whose last No. 1
qualifying effort was more than a year ago, in Sonoma, Calif. “I won’t
say it was a perfect pass, because there is no such thing, but it was
pretty darn near. And it’s good to do that when you have a single. The
track out here is phenomenal; they’ve done a lot of work on it and you
can really tell if you look at the e.t.s of all the bikes.”
Series points leader Eddie Krawiec, who is carrying a seven-race final
round streak into this event, was third on his Screamin’ Eagle Vance
& Hines Harley-Davidson with a 7.107 at 188.28. His teammate,
three-time world champ Andrew Hines, was fourth on his Harley-Davidson
with a 7.109 at 188.23. Combined the two have won the last three bike
races.
“I was really surprised that we held onto that No. 1, because had those
Screamin’ Eagles and Hector Arana behind us,” Stoffer said. “But it
shows the performance we have in that Vance & Hines motor. They
gave us good quality work and good quality motors. The team has done a
good job. This is only Friday. It’s great, I’m elated, and it was nice
to close a day on a good run. We’ve got two more tomorrow, and then the
plan is for four on Sunday.”
Qualifying continues Saturday with sessions at 11:15 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. Sunday’s eliminations start at 11 a.m.
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