IHRA expected us up at the staging lanes an
hour before any round of qualifying was due
to start, so we needed to be ready by 1 p.m.
on Friday for first round qualifying. This was
because we were not allowed to run our own fuel.
IHRA fueled the car in the staging lanes and
then pulled a fuel sample after the run to make
sure that this was the fuel we used.
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The
result of this is that as a driver you go up
to the staging lanes focused entirely on driving
your best and concentrating on the coming round.
You try to stay focused, but fans and friends
come around and want to talk. You don’t
want to be rude, but it’s all about the
run. At Virginia, Jeff Burk, the man behind
this publication, came up to talk to me and
I was so focused on the run that I didn’t
even recognize his name!
After first round Friday, we were twenty-second
in the field and not qualified. We had some
work to do and this is where the surprising
number of people I mentioned earlier came into
play. In addition to every member of our team
working, we had some help from Sonny Leonard,
Dale from CFM, Tim from RacePak, and John Bartunek
and crew getting ready for the next round.
Saturday qualifying rounds were at 2 p.m. and
7 p.m. The car looked good, the weather looked
good and we felt good. We were confident that
we would run well. We did, but so did the competition.
When it was over we had run a best time of 6.612
at 213.27 mph, putting us twentieth in the field
with the eighth fastest speed. We know now that
the car easily has it in it to qualify well,
but we have some fine-tuning to do.
A team decision has been made to sit out the
first Canadian race. We feel we will accomplish
more to stay in the United States and test.
With the race schedule now having biweekly events
and us being in South Florida, it will take
us so much time going to Canada and back that
we will have no time to test if we attend. That
said, it’s still hard to miss a race! We
are happy to have improved at every event and
we are dying to get into the show. I look forward
to the day I can write about eliminations.
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