[coverattach=1]Event: 41st annual United Association NHRA SuperNationals
Location: Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, Englishtown, NJ
Day/Date: Sunday, June 13, 2010
Over the last several races Greg Anderson and the Summit Racing team had been working to improve their performance in hot and humid conditions. Therefore, with a warm and sticky day forecast for Sunday’s final eliminations of the United Association NHRA Nationals in Englishtown, NJ, they knew they had their work cut out for them. Their day got off to a strange start when, in the first round against veteran Larry Morgan, it appeared Anderson’s day had been cut short despite outrunning his opponent 6.635 to 6.670.
However, a quick review of the video and the incremental numbers revealed an issue with the track’s timing system, with Anderson quickly being declared the winner. His reward for advancing was a second-round meeting with current points leader and No. 1 qualifier Mike Edwards. Having come close to matching his rival’s pace in the opening stanza, Anderson rolled to the line looking to advance to the semifinals for the fourth time this season.
Knowing he would need a near-perfect run to win, the KB Racing driver jumped off the line with a solid .044 reaction time gaining an advantage of over three hundredths of a second on Edwards. Although this would normally guarantee an Anderson round win, a slightly sub par 6.655-second, 207.69 mph pass allowed his opponent to use one of the quickest times of the day at 6.604-seconds to gain the extremely narrow victory.
“I can’t say I’ve ever won the way I did in the first round today,” said Anderson. “I was fairly certain I had beaten Larry to the finish line, but the win light came on in his lane. I was still trying to figure out what had happened when the NHRA officials came over and told me there had been a problem with the clocks and that I had won. On top of that, my Summit Racing Pontiac had made a pretty good run, so we felt good about our chances going into the second round.
“Unfortunately, we were just a little too conservative with our tune-up thinking that the race track was going to go away more than it did. This is not a sport for the faint of heart, and we were just not aggressive enough to hold Mike off. It didn’t shake the tires or do anything of that sort. It was just too soft and it cost us.
“The good news is that we have definitely gained ground in the last few weeks. Now we just need to go further with the changes we’ve made, so we’ll see bigger gains on the racetrack. We are a little more optimistic than we were a couple of races ago because we think we have a better product. It’s just not good enough to suit us.”
Established in 1968, Summit Racing Equipment is the leading high performance parts and accessories company. Summit Racing offers the largest selection, lowest prices, and best customer service in the high performance industry via catalogs, Internet, and Retail Super Stores. The company is headquartered in Tallmadge, Ohio with retail locations in Tallmadge, Ohio; Sparks, Nevada; and McDonough, Georgia. For more information, please visit ww.summitracing.com.
Location: Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, Englishtown, NJ
Day/Date: Sunday, June 13, 2010
Over the last several races Greg Anderson and the Summit Racing team had been working to improve their performance in hot and humid conditions. Therefore, with a warm and sticky day forecast for Sunday’s final eliminations of the United Association NHRA Nationals in Englishtown, NJ, they knew they had their work cut out for them. Their day got off to a strange start when, in the first round against veteran Larry Morgan, it appeared Anderson’s day had been cut short despite outrunning his opponent 6.635 to 6.670.
However, a quick review of the video and the incremental numbers revealed an issue with the track’s timing system, with Anderson quickly being declared the winner. His reward for advancing was a second-round meeting with current points leader and No. 1 qualifier Mike Edwards. Having come close to matching his rival’s pace in the opening stanza, Anderson rolled to the line looking to advance to the semifinals for the fourth time this season.
Knowing he would need a near-perfect run to win, the KB Racing driver jumped off the line with a solid .044 reaction time gaining an advantage of over three hundredths of a second on Edwards. Although this would normally guarantee an Anderson round win, a slightly sub par 6.655-second, 207.69 mph pass allowed his opponent to use one of the quickest times of the day at 6.604-seconds to gain the extremely narrow victory.
“I can’t say I’ve ever won the way I did in the first round today,” said Anderson. “I was fairly certain I had beaten Larry to the finish line, but the win light came on in his lane. I was still trying to figure out what had happened when the NHRA officials came over and told me there had been a problem with the clocks and that I had won. On top of that, my Summit Racing Pontiac had made a pretty good run, so we felt good about our chances going into the second round.
“Unfortunately, we were just a little too conservative with our tune-up thinking that the race track was going to go away more than it did. This is not a sport for the faint of heart, and we were just not aggressive enough to hold Mike off. It didn’t shake the tires or do anything of that sort. It was just too soft and it cost us.
“The good news is that we have definitely gained ground in the last few weeks. Now we just need to go further with the changes we’ve made, so we’ll see bigger gains on the racetrack. We are a little more optimistic than we were a couple of races ago because we think we have a better product. It’s just not good enough to suit us.”
Established in 1968, Summit Racing Equipment is the leading high performance parts and accessories company. Summit Racing offers the largest selection, lowest prices, and best customer service in the high performance industry via catalogs, Internet, and Retail Super Stores. The company is headquartered in Tallmadge, Ohio with retail locations in Tallmadge, Ohio; Sparks, Nevada; and McDonough, Georgia. For more information, please visit ww.summitracing.com.
