GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 14) - Roger Burgess maintained his number one qualifying position in the first event of the Get Screened America Pro Mod Challenge presented by ProCare Rx and advanced to the second round of eliminations Saturday by dispatching No. 16 qualifier Taylor Lastor in round one.
Burgess recorded a personal-best time of 5.993 seconds at 243.55 to earn the top spot, the only driver to break into the five-second zone during qualifying. In eliminations, Burgess led off the line and never looked back, delivering an impressive 6.014/243.55 in his ProCare Rx ‘67 Camaro to easily beat Lastor's 6.100/237.05.
"There was some kind of delay at the tree because it seemed as if it took several more seconds than usual for the lights to flash and go green. That threw me off a bit, but I wasn't going to take my eye off those bulbs, and my concentration paid off. We had the faster car, regardless," Burgess said.
Burgess said he was extremely happy to end up with his first No. 1 qualifier.
"When you qualify number one, you know everyone is coming after you. Al [Billes, crew chief] definitely had the car ready to fight off the competitors. Our back-end numbers, the second-half of our runs, are great, and we're running big mile per hour. Obviously, we're still working on the low-end numbers, and I think we're going to need that before the weekend is over," he explained.
Burgess is paired with nitrous-powered standout Mike Castellana in the second round of eliminations Sunday afternoon. Castellana beat ProCare Rx-sponsored and Billes-tuned Kenny Lang in the first round, 6.039/232.19 to 6.097/240.81.
"Al has everything ready for tomorrow, and so we're just going to come out here and get after this thing one round at a time -- 'uno alla volta' - one at a time," Burgess said.
Eliminations in the first of ten events in the Get Screened America Pro Mod Challenge presented by ProCare Rx are scheduled to be completed Sunday afternoon.
Burgess recorded a personal-best time of 5.993 seconds at 243.55 to earn the top spot, the only driver to break into the five-second zone during qualifying. In eliminations, Burgess led off the line and never looked back, delivering an impressive 6.014/243.55 in his ProCare Rx ‘67 Camaro to easily beat Lastor's 6.100/237.05.
"There was some kind of delay at the tree because it seemed as if it took several more seconds than usual for the lights to flash and go green. That threw me off a bit, but I wasn't going to take my eye off those bulbs, and my concentration paid off. We had the faster car, regardless," Burgess said.
Burgess said he was extremely happy to end up with his first No. 1 qualifier.
"When you qualify number one, you know everyone is coming after you. Al [Billes, crew chief] definitely had the car ready to fight off the competitors. Our back-end numbers, the second-half of our runs, are great, and we're running big mile per hour. Obviously, we're still working on the low-end numbers, and I think we're going to need that before the weekend is over," he explained.
Burgess is paired with nitrous-powered standout Mike Castellana in the second round of eliminations Sunday afternoon. Castellana beat ProCare Rx-sponsored and Billes-tuned Kenny Lang in the first round, 6.039/232.19 to 6.097/240.81.
"Al has everything ready for tomorrow, and so we're just going to come out here and get after this thing one round at a time -- 'uno alla volta' - one at a time," Burgess said.
Eliminations in the first of ten events in the Get Screened America Pro Mod Challenge presented by ProCare Rx are scheduled to be completed Sunday afternoon.
