Alexis DeJoria Out Early in Seattle (2 Viewers)

Webmaster · Sep 20, 2024

KENT, Wash. (July 21, 2024) – Alexis DeJoria, driver of the Bandero Premium Tequila Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, experienced some vexing struggles this weekend in her performance at the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways. The fan-favorite Funny Car pilot lost in the first round of competition after tire shake caused her safety system to engage, bringing her race day to an early end.

DeJoria improved upon each of her four qualifying efforts in the Emerald City despite experiencing challenges keeping traction on the hot track. In the final qualifying opportunity on Saturday, she leapfrogged up the ladder from the No. 11 position to No. 7 thanks to her pass of 4.027 seconds at 318.99 mph.

“Qualifying was a little tricky for us. It was a hot track and hot weather,” remarked DeJoria. “Usually, we have a good tune-up for that but we kept having issues. In Q2, our first time running at night here in Seattle, we were on our way to running a 3.80-something. The car was on a tear. Then when I got down the track, the front end picked up. That puts too much pre-load on the tires so I lost traction. That was unfortunate. There are only 15 cars here so obviously we are all qualified but you want to be qualified up in the top half of the field. But we didn’t need to worry about that because on our Q4 run, we managed to run a 4.027 which got us in the No. 7 spot. So that was good going into race day.”

Entering race day from the top half of the ladder bolstered DeJoria’s confidence as she prepared to face No. 10 qualifier Blake Alexander. It was an interesting first round in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Funny Car category. Two fellow Funny Car pilots (Ron Capps and Dave Richards) experienced on-track incidents and rain threatened to take the track a couple of times, dragging out the first session before she and Alexander finally got their chance to roll up to the starting line.

DeJoria’s solid reaction time of .069 seconds gave her a powerful starting line advantage, but soon after launch, her tires shook violently enough to activate her safety system, causing the car to shut off and the parachutes to deploy. Alexander had to pedal down the track in the opposite lane to get the round win.

“It was a really crazy morning,” DeJoria recalled. “There were some accidents. Two Funny Cars crashed into the wall. As upset as I am that we lost another first round because of a fluke, I can honestly say it could have been worse. I’m grateful that our car is not wadded up on the wall. That being said, when my car went out, it was tuned up. It’s cooler today – completely different from the rest of the weekend. I got in and out of the car probably five times because of rain and accidents. I had a good light leaving the starting line. Then the car shook really hard and when that happened, one of the plug wires came undone inside the black box and it turned the safety system on, throwing my parachutes out and shutting the car off. I was dead in the water. I couldn’t do anything but watch Blake pedal his car to the finish line. But luckily we ended the day in one piece and we will get to race again next weekend in Sonoma.”

The Bandero Premium Tequila team will head directly to Sonoma, Calif. for the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway, July 26-28.

Qualified: No. 7 (4.027 E.T. at 318.99 MPH)

Elimination Round Results:
E1: 9.113 E.T. at 54.39 MPH defeated by Blake Alexander 6.258 E.T. at 134.60 MPH

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Alexis DeJoria Out Early in Seattle (2 Viewers)

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