D'Aprile's Final Round Appearance Moves Mel Bush Motorsports to Second on IHRA Points Ladder
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<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/DAprile_126400.jpg" alt="DAprile_126400" />
<br><font color="Navy"> "This was a great weekend for our team. We faced diversity head on and proved ourselves as a serious contender for this year's title," said D'Aprile. </font>
<P> 7/22/08 Grand Bend, ON, CA. – Team Owner Mel Bush used every aspect of his team to get his driver, Tommy D'Aprile, into the finals at the recently completed Mopar Canadian Nationals in Grand Bend, Ontario, Canada.
"Everyone on this team did their jobs to the highest level. Tommy did one hell of a job behind the wheel and my crew along with the guys from Jan-Cen Motorsports are second to none. I've been around this sport for a lot of years and to see how well these guys work under pressure is amazing," said Bush.
D'Aprile qualified Bush's unique '62 Bel Air in the number two spot with a 6.044 at over 237 miles per hour pairing him with Thomas Patterson. Patterson, from Spring, Texas, qualified his '70 Dodge Charger in the tenth spot with 6.201 elapsed time. D'Aprile took an incredible starting line advantage posting a .006 reaction time. D'Aprile needed every bit of his starting line advantage to take the win as he ran into mechanical troubles 320 feet before the finish line. Patterson posted a slightly quicker elapsed time of 6.232 to D'Aprile's 6.233 but D'Aprile took the hole shot win.
Between rounds the Mel Bush Motorsports' pit was a hive of activity as the team frantically prepared their wounded machine for round two. Kevin Peters, of Jan-Cen Motorsports, explained the situation. "We are having a slight ignition problem. It started at the last race and the travel between races made it next to impossible to properly diagnose. The same thing happened here and I think we now have an idea of the cause. We'll investigate this situation more at the shop but right now it's about getting her ready for next round," said Peters.
Peters and the rest of the crew reached their goal of the second round and driver, D'Aprile made the best of it taking out Jason Stock. In the semi-finals D'Aprile bested, points leader, Kenny Lang with a 6.14 to Lang's slower 6.27. The win over Lang put D'Aprile into his first final of the year, against Pro Modifieds first ever event winner, Ed Hoover. Hoover made it to the finals by defeating Mark Nielsen, Jason Hamstra, and Mike Janis.
D'Aprile lost lane choice to Hoover by virtue of Hoover's quicker elapsed time in the previous round. Hoover place D'Aprile in the right lane, the "bad lane". D'Aprile showed his prowess on the tree as he took nearly seven hundredths of a second starting line advantage, but it wasn't enough as his machine was tossed toward the centerline and started to fishtail. D'Aprile was forced to lift and hand the race to Hoover.
"This was a great weekend for our team. We faced diversity head on and proved ourselves as a serious contender for this year's title. Mel and Johanne have put together one of, if not the best team in IHRA Pro Mod," said D'Aprile.
Next Up for the Mel bush Motorsports team is the Torco Northern Nationals. The event will begin Friday, Aug. 1 with two pro qualifying sessions. Saturday there will be two professional qualifying sessions as well as the Torco Pro Mod Shootout, with the Night of Fire pro qualifying session starting at 7pm. Final eliminations are slated for Sunday, Aug. 3, beginning at 11am. For more information please visit nitrojam.com or us131motorsportspark.com.
Team Owner Mel "Double O" Bush of Port St. Lucie, Florida qualified his '62 Bel Air fifth in the 32-car field Top Sportsman. Bush laid down a series of .00 reaction times but lost to Bradenton, Florida's Gary Williams.
For More Information on Team Driver Tommy D'Aprile check out: Sir Thomas Inc.
Photo By: Roger Richards
<p style="width:300px;float:left;font-weight:bold;padding-right:0px;">
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/DAprile_126400.jpg" alt="DAprile_126400" />
<br><font color="Navy"> "This was a great weekend for our team. We faced diversity head on and proved ourselves as a serious contender for this year's title," said D'Aprile. </font>
<P> 7/22/08 Grand Bend, ON, CA. – Team Owner Mel Bush used every aspect of his team to get his driver, Tommy D'Aprile, into the finals at the recently completed Mopar Canadian Nationals in Grand Bend, Ontario, Canada.
"Everyone on this team did their jobs to the highest level. Tommy did one hell of a job behind the wheel and my crew along with the guys from Jan-Cen Motorsports are second to none. I've been around this sport for a lot of years and to see how well these guys work under pressure is amazing," said Bush.
D'Aprile qualified Bush's unique '62 Bel Air in the number two spot with a 6.044 at over 237 miles per hour pairing him with Thomas Patterson. Patterson, from Spring, Texas, qualified his '70 Dodge Charger in the tenth spot with 6.201 elapsed time. D'Aprile took an incredible starting line advantage posting a .006 reaction time. D'Aprile needed every bit of his starting line advantage to take the win as he ran into mechanical troubles 320 feet before the finish line. Patterson posted a slightly quicker elapsed time of 6.232 to D'Aprile's 6.233 but D'Aprile took the hole shot win.
Between rounds the Mel Bush Motorsports' pit was a hive of activity as the team frantically prepared their wounded machine for round two. Kevin Peters, of Jan-Cen Motorsports, explained the situation. "We are having a slight ignition problem. It started at the last race and the travel between races made it next to impossible to properly diagnose. The same thing happened here and I think we now have an idea of the cause. We'll investigate this situation more at the shop but right now it's about getting her ready for next round," said Peters.
Peters and the rest of the crew reached their goal of the second round and driver, D'Aprile made the best of it taking out Jason Stock. In the semi-finals D'Aprile bested, points leader, Kenny Lang with a 6.14 to Lang's slower 6.27. The win over Lang put D'Aprile into his first final of the year, against Pro Modifieds first ever event winner, Ed Hoover. Hoover made it to the finals by defeating Mark Nielsen, Jason Hamstra, and Mike Janis.
D'Aprile lost lane choice to Hoover by virtue of Hoover's quicker elapsed time in the previous round. Hoover place D'Aprile in the right lane, the "bad lane". D'Aprile showed his prowess on the tree as he took nearly seven hundredths of a second starting line advantage, but it wasn't enough as his machine was tossed toward the centerline and started to fishtail. D'Aprile was forced to lift and hand the race to Hoover.
"This was a great weekend for our team. We faced diversity head on and proved ourselves as a serious contender for this year's title. Mel and Johanne have put together one of, if not the best team in IHRA Pro Mod," said D'Aprile.
Next Up for the Mel bush Motorsports team is the Torco Northern Nationals. The event will begin Friday, Aug. 1 with two pro qualifying sessions. Saturday there will be two professional qualifying sessions as well as the Torco Pro Mod Shootout, with the Night of Fire pro qualifying session starting at 7pm. Final eliminations are slated for Sunday, Aug. 3, beginning at 11am. For more information please visit nitrojam.com or us131motorsportspark.com.
Team Owner Mel "Double O" Bush of Port St. Lucie, Florida qualified his '62 Bel Air fifth in the 32-car field Top Sportsman. Bush laid down a series of .00 reaction times but lost to Bradenton, Florida's Gary Williams.
For More Information on Team Driver Tommy D'Aprile check out: Sir Thomas Inc.
Photo By: Roger Richards
