Riding the excitement from a promising semifinal finish at the season-opening NHRA Gatornationals, Alexis DeJoria went into the NHRA Arizona Nationals chasing another big performance in her Bandero Café Funny Car. DeJoria pushed the tree hard in her opening-round match, but she pushed it a touch too hard, leading to a red-light disqualification. Her Mike ‘Zippy’ Neff and Todd Smith-tuned JCM Racing hot rod continued to run in the 3.90-second range, though, keeping DeJoria’s morale high going into the next race in just a few days.
DeJoria lost traction early in her first qualifying attempt on Friday, but she bounced back with a 3.931-second pass at 324.75 mph to wrap up Friday in sixth. When DeJoria reached the semifinals at the Gatornationals, she qualified for the first Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Funny Car Challenge of the season in Phoenix. In the first round of the Challenge, which counted as the third qualifying session, DeJoria left first against Ron Capps, but her car went silent around 700 feet and finished with a 4.196 E.T. DeJoria and her team sat out the fourth session to prepare for Sunday eliminations out of the No. 6 position.
On race day, two pairs of Funny Cars ahead of DeJoria, Capps experienced a violent explosion and crash. Fortunately, he walked away from the incident without injuries, but the impact to the retaining wall did require repairs that put the rest of the round on a delay. Though DeJoria and her fellow competitors had the chance to get out of their cars during the delay, she did sit in her car for quite some time after it had been baking under the Arizona sun. When it came time to stage and launch, DeJoria stepped on the throttle .046 seconds too soon, giving the win to Cruz Pedregon.
“I don’t want to make excuses by any means, but I was definitely hot in there and ready to go,” DeJoria said. “I saw the lights come down, but I still had the red light – just barely. I didn’t know I red-lit and left the line and it was going good. We probably would have run a mid-3.90-something, but I saw Cruz’s board lit up, so I realized at that moment, ‘Oh, I was a little too good on the tree. I’m on the wrong side of it.’
“That was the end of our day, but luckily we get to race in another week,” DeJoria added. “I’m really looking forward to it because I know we have a car that can compete.”
DeJoria and the Bandero Café team will seek redemption at the NHRA Winternationals, March 28-30, at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.
Qualified: No. 6 (3.931 E.T. at 324.75 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
E1: Foul (Red Light) defeated by Cruz Pedregon 3.977 E.T. at 322.34 MPH
Continue reading...
DeJoria lost traction early in her first qualifying attempt on Friday, but she bounced back with a 3.931-second pass at 324.75 mph to wrap up Friday in sixth. When DeJoria reached the semifinals at the Gatornationals, she qualified for the first Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Funny Car Challenge of the season in Phoenix. In the first round of the Challenge, which counted as the third qualifying session, DeJoria left first against Ron Capps, but her car went silent around 700 feet and finished with a 4.196 E.T. DeJoria and her team sat out the fourth session to prepare for Sunday eliminations out of the No. 6 position.
On race day, two pairs of Funny Cars ahead of DeJoria, Capps experienced a violent explosion and crash. Fortunately, he walked away from the incident without injuries, but the impact to the retaining wall did require repairs that put the rest of the round on a delay. Though DeJoria and her fellow competitors had the chance to get out of their cars during the delay, she did sit in her car for quite some time after it had been baking under the Arizona sun. When it came time to stage and launch, DeJoria stepped on the throttle .046 seconds too soon, giving the win to Cruz Pedregon.
“I don’t want to make excuses by any means, but I was definitely hot in there and ready to go,” DeJoria said. “I saw the lights come down, but I still had the red light – just barely. I didn’t know I red-lit and left the line and it was going good. We probably would have run a mid-3.90-something, but I saw Cruz’s board lit up, so I realized at that moment, ‘Oh, I was a little too good on the tree. I’m on the wrong side of it.’
“That was the end of our day, but luckily we get to race in another week,” DeJoria added. “I’m really looking forward to it because I know we have a car that can compete.”
DeJoria and the Bandero Café team will seek redemption at the NHRA Winternationals, March 28-30, at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.
Qualified: No. 6 (3.931 E.T. at 324.75 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
E1: Foul (Red Light) defeated by Cruz Pedregon 3.977 E.T. at 322.34 MPH
Continue reading...
