Karen Stoffer's "Redemption Tour" started off exactly as she expected Friday at the O'Reilly Super Start Batteries NHRA Fall Nationals -- with her GEICO Powersports Suzuki in first place on the Pro Stock Motorcycle list.
 
With a hot, slippery track toasted to 134 degrees at the Texas Motorplex, Stoffer rode to a 6.953-second, 192.41-mph pass that she hopes to parlay Saturday into her first top spot since the class' season-opener in March at Gainesville, Fla.
 
"The boys hit the tune-up right off the bat," Stoffer said. "They've been working hard on the tune-up, but they've been working harder on the chassis. So it was really nice that they were able to get the tune-up right out of the gate for those hot tracks. That's what they've got to do. They've got to tune for these hot tracks. They're learning how to do it with this power that we have now."

Karen Stoffer's "Redemption Tour" started off exactly as she expected Friday at the O'Reilly Super Start Batteries NHRA Fall Nationals -- with her GEICO Powersports Suzuki in first place on the Pro Stock Motorcycle list.
 
With a hot, slippery track toasted to 134 degrees at the Texas Motorplex, Stoffer rode to a 6.953-second, 192.41-mph pass that she hopes to parlay Saturday into her first top spot since the class' season-opener in March at Gainesville, Fla.
 
"The boys hit the tune-up right off the bat," Stoffer said. "They've been working hard on the tune-up, but they've been working harder on the chassis. So it was really nice that they were able to get the tune-up right out of the gate for those hot tracks. That's what they've got to do. They've got to tune for these hot tracks. They're learning how to do it with this power that we have now."
 
Stoffer began the year with the third-quickest elapsed time ever (6.847 seconds) but fell from third in the standings after that event to as far back as 10th as late as the July 18 Sonoma, Calif., race. So the return to performance superiority -- even if only temporary -- was a big boost to her and her crew.
 
"My biggest relief is we've been getting the bike going straight lately. It's just a relief to be back in the No. 1 spot. We haven't been No. 1 since the beginning of the year. It was a huge reward to get down there and get down there fast and put that Geico Powersports bike in the No. 1 spot," Stoffer said.
 
"We knew we had the bike. We were just facing all these issues all year long," she said.
 
She said crew chief husband Gary Stoffer has given her bike that can perform even better than it did in the opener of this third of six Countdown races.
 
"I don't know if it [her time] will hold. People were just trying to figure out what to put to the track. So I'm not 100 percent sure it's going to hold," Karen Stoffer said. "But I know the GEICO Powersports bike is going to get a little bit quicker. We still have a little more left in it."
 
Saturday's two sessions (at 11:15 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. CDT), she noted, are "going to be a little warmer and a different time of day," but she said she hopes to improve. "It's supposed to be the same conditions, so I'm confident we'll get the GEICO Powersports bike down into the 6-second range again."
 
She and the following three rider sin the order -- Eddie Krawiec, Steve Johnson, and Andrew Hines -- were the only ones to run quicker than seven seconds in the opening session. But No. 5 LE Tonglet, who posted a 7.008-second E.T. in the first session, dipped to 6.999 in Friday's nightcap. He was the only one of the top five competitors Friday to improve in the second session.
 
"Historically, if you look at the bikes here," Stoffer said, "they don’t really improve on the second session, even though it does tend to be a little bit cooler. We tried something on that second pass -- obviously it didn’t work. "Tomorrow we'll try something going back the other way."
 
Stoffer's most recent victory was at the Gatornationals at Gainesville in 2007.

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