GUGLIOTTA’S TRACK
RECORD HIGHLIGHTS SPRING NATIONALS QUALIFYING
Sunday Finals Will Crown
Four Pro Champions
at Rockingham Dragway
By Dave Densmore
Photo by Jeff Burk
4/26/05
Continued from IHRA
AT ROCKINGHAM
Frank Gugliotta upstaged reigning
series champion John Nobile and defending event champion
John Montecalvo Saturday by driving his 2004 Ford Escort
to a Rockingham Dragway track record in qualifying for
Sunday’s 35th annual IHRA Spring Nationals.
In recording a career best time of 6.412 seconds at 214.59 miles per hour,
the Mt. Airy, Md., driver established himself as the Pro Stock favorite on
Sunday. In addition to Pro Stock, Sunday’s single elimination finals
will crown Spring Nationals champions in Top Fuel, Pro Modified, Pro Stock
and seven Pro-Am categories.
Other top qualifiers Saturday were Doug Foley of Sewell,
N.J., at 4.657 seconds, 307.75 mph; Quain Stott of Columbus,
S.C., at 6.161 seconds, 229.18 mph in Pro Modified; and
Rob Atchison of London, Ontario, Calif., at 5.751 seconds,
240.94 mph in Funny Car.
Gugliotta’s time broke the Pro Stock track record
of 6.435 set by Nobile during qualifying for the 2004 IHRA
World Finals, an event in which he clinched his first series
title. Thanks to Gugliotta, Tony Gillig of Lake Bluff,
Ill., Peter Berner of Crete, Ill., and Robert Patrick of
Fredericksburg, Va., Fords occupied the top four positions
in the Pro Stock qualifying order.
The highest qualified non-Ford was the Chevrolet Cobalt
of Dodge expatriate Rick Jones of Galesburg, Ill., which
wound up fifth at 6.468, 214.25 mph.
“Actually we were shooting for 6.42-6.43,” Gugliotta
said. “It actually came up a little quicker
than that. The track was good. It held. Tomorrow
they’re talking about [how] it’s going to be
colder so what we’re starting to worry about is track
temperature.”
Gugliotta said that the track temperature was in the low
70s when he made his record run on Friday. "If
it’s another 10 degrees cooler Sunday, that could
be a problem," he said. Gugliotta, one of a
half dozen Pro Stock drivers with the potential to be the
first to officially break the 6.40 barrier, said he thought
he had a real shot at that milestone on his record-breaking
qualifying run.
“I was thinking 6.30s right there, to be honest
with you,” he said. “When I put it in
high gear, I thought, ‘maybe.’ But if
the track is good [Sunday], ‘30s are [still] possible. There’s
a lot of cars that could do it, but I’m not going
to be thinking ‘30s, at least not in the first round,” Gugliotta
said. “We’re going to try to [win] rounds
tomorrow.”
While reigning series champions Clay Millican of Drummonds,
Tenn., Atchison and Nobile put themselves in position to
challenge on Sunday, problems continued for 2004 IHRA/Hooters
Pro Modified Champion Mike Janis of Lancaster, N.Y., who
failed to qualify for the second time in as many 2005 races.
The defending Spring Nationals champion, Janis never was
able to make a representative qualifying run in the 2005
Dodge Stratus he debuted earlier this month in the IHRA
Texas Nationals at San Antonio. Instead, he watched
from the sidelines as Stott set the qualifying pace on
Saturday.
Millican, who on Sunday will try to extend his Rockingham
Dragway winning streak to eight consecutive races, appeared
to be well on his way to yet another No. 1 qualifying performance
in Top Fuel only to be upstaged by Foley, who, for his
efforts, will oppose 74-year-old legend Chris Karamesines
of Chicago in round one. “We weren’t out there trying to set the
world on its end,” Atchison said of his No. 1 effort
in Funny Car. “We went out there just trying
to get down the racetrack. That was really our race day setup
because we’re anticipating that kind of weather [on
Sunday].”
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