There are plenty of reasons not to lift Friday afternoon at Rockingham Dragway. Now there are a few more.
The second qualifying session at the inaugural NHRA Nationals at The Rock will carry more than a number on the qualifying sheet. The quickest driver or rider in each Mission Foods professional category will walk away with some new hardware through the Last Driver Standing Laptop Giveaway presented by IGTG and Perimeter.One.
And for the nitro racers, there is cash attached.
The low qualifiers in Top Fuel and Funny Car during Friday’s Q2 session will each collect a $1,000 bonus. The quickest in Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle will receive an ASUS ROG Flow Z13 Nebula laptop, along with a case of Idaho Spud candy bars.
Yes, candy bars.
Nobody ever said drag racing contingency prizes had to be predictable.
The laptops feature AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 processors with 16 cores and RDNA graphics. IGTG and Perimeter.One will also provide setup assistance and follow-up management for the winners, turning what could have been a straightforward promotional giveaway into something with some usefulness once the teams leave Rockingham.
Q2 is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. ET Friday.
“IGTG and Perimeter.One are honored to support Paul Lee Racing, and we’re excited to host the Last Driver Standing competition during Q2 Friday at The Rock,” IGTG founder Scott Kunau said. “We’ll be awarding high-end laptops, a comprehensive IT review for the winning teams, and of course, Idaho Spud candy bars to the last rider and racers standing.
“Jason Weber, founder of Perimeter.One, and I are focused on growing brand awareness while demonstrating how we can help NHRA teams with their technology needs, just as IGTG has done for PLR. From IT infrastructure and support to cybersecurity and AI implementation, our goal is to help race teams operate more securely and efficiently on the starting line rather than add IT problems to a repair or recovery list.”
It is an unconventional qualifying bonus, but unconventional fits Rockingham pretty well.
NHRA arrives at The Rock this weekend for the first time with its Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, putting the historic North Carolina facility on the national-event schedule at a particularly unforgiving point in the season.
Rockingham is race No. 16 of the 20-event schedule and, more importantly, the second stop in the six-race Countdown to the Championship.
That means Friday qualifying already comes with consequences. Nobody chasing a championship needs another reason to throw everything it has at a qualifying run, but a little cash and some expensive computer equipment certainly won’t hurt.
For IGTG and Perimeter.One, the program also expands their presence at Rockingham beyond their primary sponsorship of Paul Lee Racing. The companies are using the weekend to put their technology and cybersecurity businesses in front of teams while putting something tangible on the line for the racers.
