NHRA Sport Compacts at Atco

By Jennifer Chestnut

ATCO, NJ, May 19, 2002 - Final eliminations were completed at the Northeast Sport Compact Nationals at Atco Raceway. In the Hot Rod class, Marty Ladwig ran a career best elapsed time of 10.088 seconds at 133.74 mph in qualifying and advanced the Bothwell Ecotec Pontiac Sunfire to the second round before losing to Lisa Kubo who had an elapsed time of 9.306 seconds at 157.97 mph to Ladwig's elapsed time of 10.233 seconds at 129.60 mph.

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Ladwig defeated Rafael Estevez in the first round with an elapsed time of 10.210 seconds at 132.90 mph. Estevez ran into problems and had to shut off.

"We had a good weekend with the Pontiac Sunfire," said Ladwig. "We ran a career best in qualifying and the performance was up to par. We were pretty consistent all weekend which is what we want. (Lisa) Kubo just ended up having the better car that round. It was a good race and the car ran really well. The team did a great job."

Nelson Hoyos drove the Bothwell Ecotec Chevy Cavalier in round one of Modified eliminations against Stephan Papadakis (above photo) who drives a Honda. The Chevy Cavalier broke a throttle pedal and Hoyos had to coast down the track giving Papadakis the win with an elapsed time of 8.513 seconds at 170.19 mph. (Tim Marshall file photo)

"What a bummer that was," said Hoyos. "We had such high expectations and then something like that happens and it shatters all of them. We had a good qualifying run and we were looking forward to racing in eliminations. I can tell you that this team worked very hard this weekend and did a great job. I've enjoyed working with all of them. They have great program here and I'm glad I am able to help out and be apart of it."

The next event is the Toyo Tires NHRA Sport Compact Nationals June 1-2 at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas.

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