[coverattach=1]It was an unusual day on Sunday at the Toyo Tires Nationals in Reading, PA. Although mostly sunny skies had replaced the rains of the previous two days, Pro Stock final eliminations were suddenly halted midway through the first round due to water seeping up through the track. This caused a nearly thr ee-hour delay as the NHRA’s Safety Safari worked feverishly to restore the racing surface, during which time conditions completely changed, leaving the six drivers left to run scrambling to adjust their set-ups accordingly.
After qualifying second, Greg Anderson and his Summit Racing team were among those forced to wait their turn. However, his patience was rewarded in the first round when Rickie Jones left the starting line early, handing Anderson the automatic win. Even so, he posted the second-quickest time of the round at 6.671 seconds with a top speed of 207.27 mph to earn lane choice for his second round encounter against former Funny Car driver Johnny Gray.
Just as he was for the first round, Anderson was ready at the start, leaving the starting line one hundredth of second ahead of Gray. =2 0However, his mount was struck by a rare mechanical malfunction almost immediately, slowing his progress, and allowing his opponent to advance.
“That run was nothing more than a case of bad luck,” said Anderson. “It dead-headed and then jumped out of low gear, and then it shook when I tried to go back in because it was on the rev limiter. It’s one of those things that happens once or maybe twice a year if you’re unlucky, and today just happened to be our turn. There wasn’t anything I could have done differently as a driver, or anything we could change in the transmission to make sure it didn’t happen again. The dogs didn’t line up perfectly, and I was done.
“I’m honestly very disappointed that we didn’t advance, but I’m equally upset that we were off on the set-up. Without the mechanical issues, I certainly would have won the round. I left on Johnny and only needed to run a 6.72 to beat him. However, both Jason (teammate Line) and I missed on the starting line and didn’t run worth a lick. We were decent in qualifying, but for some reason seemed to take a step backwards today.
“We need to figure out what changes we need to make to these Summit Racing Pontiacs to make them better, and we will. We know we have some work to do in the next few weeks, but everyone on this team is committed to getting it right. We’re going to find that round peg for that round hole.”
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.
After qualifying second, Greg Anderson and his Summit Racing team were among those forced to wait their turn. However, his patience was rewarded in the first round when Rickie Jones left the starting line early, handing Anderson the automatic win. Even so, he posted the second-quickest time of the round at 6.671 seconds with a top speed of 207.27 mph to earn lane choice for his second round encounter against former Funny Car driver Johnny Gray.
Just as he was for the first round, Anderson was ready at the start, leaving the starting line one hundredth of second ahead of Gray. =2 0However, his mount was struck by a rare mechanical malfunction almost immediately, slowing his progress, and allowing his opponent to advance.
“That run was nothing more than a case of bad luck,” said Anderson. “It dead-headed and then jumped out of low gear, and then it shook when I tried to go back in because it was on the rev limiter. It’s one of those things that happens once or maybe twice a year if you’re unlucky, and today just happened to be our turn. There wasn’t anything I could have done differently as a driver, or anything we could change in the transmission to make sure it didn’t happen again. The dogs didn’t line up perfectly, and I was done.
“I’m honestly very disappointed that we didn’t advance, but I’m equally upset that we were off on the set-up. Without the mechanical issues, I certainly would have won the round. I left on Johnny and only needed to run a 6.72 to beat him. However, both Jason (teammate Line) and I missed on the starting line and didn’t run worth a lick. We were decent in qualifying, but for some reason seemed to take a step backwards today.
“We need to figure out what changes we need to make to these Summit Racing Pontiacs to make them better, and we will. We know we have some work to do in the next few weeks, but everyone on this team is committed to getting it right. We’re going to find that round peg for that round hole.”
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.
