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One weekend ago, Phil Burkart lost in the first round at Seattle to a competitor he never saw. Tonight in Sonoma, he posted a fine 4.833 to end the day in the No. 7 spot, on a race track he barely saw. Driving into the setting sun, Burkart was nearly blinded by the bright light in the sky, the glare on his windshield, and a cockpit full of swirling clutch dust, but he kept his foot down and clicked through the lights with a strong 4.833, mostly doing it by the seat of his pants.
"I'd have to say that's one of the more difficult, and more exciting, laps I've ever made in a Funny Car," Burkart said. "And you know, if they'd have just held us up for five minutes, the sun would have gone behind the hills and we wouldn't have had all that drama, but they sent us up there so we had to go for it. I mean, these late Friday runs are everything, they're so important, so unless I was 100 percent blind I wasn't going to lift. I was just 99 percent blind, and it felt like it was going straight, so I counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and lifted.
"Okay, I'm just kidding about counting it out, but I really couldn't see much of anything. I'm not sure why they don't just hold the session up to let the sun go down, but we're solidly in the show and we did well so I guess it's okay now. At the time, it was pretty exciting. The car ran great, and when we ran we were clearly the best to run at that time. I knew it wouldn't hold for the top, and even having it fall to 7th isn't that bad. We'll work on a race-day set-up tomorrow, and try to get ready for Sunday."
BURKART "FEELS" HIS WAY TO No. 7 SPOT
One weekend ago, Phil Burkart lost in the first round at Seattle to a competitor he never saw. Tonight in Sonoma, he posted a fine 4.833 to end the day in the No. 7 spot, on a race track he barely saw. Driving into the setting sun, Burkart was nearly blinded by the bright light in the sky, the glare on his windshield, and a cockpit full of swirling clutch dust, but he kept his foot down and clicked through the lights with a strong 4.833, mostly doing it by the seat of his pants.
"I'd have to say that's one of the more difficult, and more exciting, laps I've ever made in a Funny Car," Burkart said. "And you know, if they'd have just held us up for five minutes, the sun would have gone behind the hills and we wouldn't have had all that drama, but they sent us up there so we had to go for it. I mean, these late Friday runs are everything, they're so important, so unless I was 100 percent blind I wasn't going to lift. I was just 99 percent blind, and it felt like it was going straight, so I counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and lifted.
"Okay, I'm just kidding about counting it out, but I really couldn't see much of anything. I'm not sure why they don't just hold the session up to let the sun go down, but we're solidly in the show and we did well so I guess it's okay now. At the time, it was pretty exciting. The car ran great, and when we ran we were clearly the best to run at that time. I knew it wouldn't hold for the top, and even having it fall to 7th isn't that bad. We'll work on a race-day set-up tomorrow, and try to get ready for Sunday."
