Clutch hurt during burnout slows Humphreys in first round
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/j_humphreys.jpg" alt="j_humphreys" align="right"borders="0"/>
Memphis, TN (9/28/08): Justin Humphreys can add Sunday's first round of the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals to his book of weird ways to lose a round.
After going through his starting routine at Memphis Motorsports Park, he drove through the water box to wet the tires before the burnout and then let the clutch out. The tires began shaking immediately and Humphreys stopped, drove back into the water box to find out there was no water in it the first time.
The redo brought smoke, but the clutch was hurt and so was his chance of driving the RaceRedi Motorsports Pontiac to the win. Humphreys did register a .017-second reaction time to opponent Jeg Coughlin's .028, but the best Humphreys could muster was a 6.976-second effort to Coughlin's 6.642.
"The track guys didn't put any water in the water box (before his run) and no one caught it before we pulled up there," said Humphreys. "When I let the clutch out on the burnout it kind of hacked around out there. I didn't know what was wrong. We backed up and they put the water down. That cost us a run.
"We thought we had the hot rod to beat this weekend. The WJ (Warren Johnson) power we have been using is awesome and my guys have been doing a good job.
"This was one of those freak things that will probably never happen again."
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/j_humphreys.jpg" alt="j_humphreys" align="right"borders="0"/>
Memphis, TN (9/28/08): Justin Humphreys can add Sunday's first round of the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals to his book of weird ways to lose a round.
After going through his starting routine at Memphis Motorsports Park, he drove through the water box to wet the tires before the burnout and then let the clutch out. The tires began shaking immediately and Humphreys stopped, drove back into the water box to find out there was no water in it the first time.
The redo brought smoke, but the clutch was hurt and so was his chance of driving the RaceRedi Motorsports Pontiac to the win. Humphreys did register a .017-second reaction time to opponent Jeg Coughlin's .028, but the best Humphreys could muster was a 6.976-second effort to Coughlin's 6.642.
"The track guys didn't put any water in the water box (before his run) and no one caught it before we pulled up there," said Humphreys. "When I let the clutch out on the burnout it kind of hacked around out there. I didn't know what was wrong. We backed up and they put the water down. That cost us a run.
"We thought we had the hot rod to beat this weekend. The WJ (Warren Johnson) power we have been using is awesome and my guys have been doing a good job.
"This was one of those freak things that will probably never happen again."
