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DOUBLE DUTY
After breaking the wheelie bars on his nitrous-assisted
'63 Corvette at the IHRA season opener in San
Antonio, TX, and needing more testing time with
the supercharged car added to his Paul Trussell-owned
team this season, Pro Mod veteran Ed Hoover
sat out the NHRA Pro Mod show a week later in
Gainesville.
"I just told NHRA that I couldn't be competitive
and they'd be better off giving my parking space
to someone else," Hoover said between qualifying
rounds at Rockingham. "I'll be back there, though,
as soon as I get everything sorted out."
Part of that sorting out included entering
the blown car (above) in Top Sportsman at the
Rock, while the trusty nitrous entry (below)
carried the Pro Mod load. Both cars qualified,
with Hoover grabbing the top spot in Top Sportsman
with a 6.364 at 216.41, the quickest elapsed
time ever recorded in the class, and finishing
12th in Pro Mod with a 6.272 at 221.13 mph.
The blown car was later withdrawn from Top Sportsman,
which allowed Frank Teague to move into the
field from the 17th slot.
Hoover also mentioned Tommy Mauney is building
him another new car that will run nitrous and
be able to accommodate the larger 36-inch Top
Fuel slicks like Shannon Jenkins currently uses.
He added that he loves driving the blower car,
though. "It's made drag racing a lot more fun
for me again. There's so much to learn with
it; the two cars are completely different, but
that's good."
PRO STOCK
Number-one
qualifier Pete Berner's time
was just .006 off the IHRA record
set by Gene Wilson in 2001 at
Budd's Creek, MD. |
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Pete Berner served notice he's ready to race
this year when he laid down a 6.538 pass at
211.53 mph during the opening round of qualifying.
The Pro Stock guys had the toughest time on
Saturday night, as track conditions just weren't
conducive to making fast, full-track passes.
Only Jerry Haas made a full pass, but it was
well off the 6.634 he needed to bump Elijah
Morton out of the 16-car field.
Jerry Haas made his debut
in Rockingham as driver for Billy Dingman's
new IHRA Pro Stock team, with engines from Lennart
Bergqvist at Autoshop in Orlando, FL. Dingman
said he plans to hit all the remaining U.S.-based
events on the schedule.
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