After
a strong season-opening effort in Florida, the ROUSH® drag racing team
continued their assault on the NMRA’s index classes with another
hard-fought effort during a weekend of weather uncertainty at Silver
Dollar Raceway in Reynolds, Ga.
Susan Roush-McClenaghan followed up her final round appearance at
Bradenton (Fla.) Motorsports Park with another final round berth
against perennial tough contender Tom Motycka. After a strong 0.014
reaction time during the rain-aborted qualifying sessions landed her in
the seventh qualified spot, Susan powered all the way through the
field, missing out on the top spot by the slimmest of margins - eleven
ten thousandths of a second at the stripe.
Susan, despite not having the drag racing experience of some of her
racing peers, is quickly establishing herself as a force to be reckoned
with in the ROUSH Performance Modular Muscle class. As is the case with
any drag race, there has to be a winner and a loser, and after Susan
met up with Roush teammate Donnie Bowles in the second round, she moved
on to have a third-round bye before narrowly winning over Georgia’s
Charlie McCulloch to advance to the final against Motycka. The
heartbreaking loss in the event’s final stanza didn’t temper Susan’s
spirits; she was upbeat and cheery after cementing her class points
lead with this strong showing, the third final-round appearance of her
career.