<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/FranH.jpg" alt="FranH" align="left"borders="0"/>
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 16, 2008) - In his first competitive outing since 1991, former world champion Frank Hawley drove the Gotham City Racing ProCare Rx Dodge Charger R/T to a first round exit in the ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. Despite losing to "Fast" Jack Beckman in an exciting side-by-side race, Hawley said: "We're the most excited team out there that lost the first round."
"Clearly we would like to have some round wins, but I think what we need to do is look past whether we won or not at look to how the team performed overall over the weekend, and I think we did great!” Hawley said.
From the No. 11 qualifying position, Hawley ran a 4.898/321.04 in his losing effort against Beckman's 4.866/320.66, but the former Gatornationals winner was very pleased with the team's performance for the weekend.
"We made three runs, the car went to the finish line three times, never smoked the tires, never aborted a run. Each run we made, Aaron [Brooks, crew chief] and the crew made changes, and the car got quicker on each run. The first round of eliminations, we were the quickest car in the lane we ran, which was not the lane of choice.
"The engine looks perfect, we didn't' break any parts. So, if you look at our team's performance at the Gatornationals, it far exceeded the stats sheet which says we had a first round loss.
"I'd say we had a pretty darn good first race together," Hawley said.
He added, "We're all upbeat and we're enthusiastic about the future. The team did well, the car performed well, and we're excited to be back out there soon."
Hawley said his next outing in the Funny Car will be when the team goes to the Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals in Atlanta.
Hawley upbeat after first round Gatornationals exit
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 16, 2008) - In his first competitive outing since 1991, former world champion Frank Hawley drove the Gotham City Racing ProCare Rx Dodge Charger R/T to a first round exit in the ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. Despite losing to "Fast" Jack Beckman in an exciting side-by-side race, Hawley said: "We're the most excited team out there that lost the first round."
"Clearly we would like to have some round wins, but I think what we need to do is look past whether we won or not at look to how the team performed overall over the weekend, and I think we did great!” Hawley said.
From the No. 11 qualifying position, Hawley ran a 4.898/321.04 in his losing effort against Beckman's 4.866/320.66, but the former Gatornationals winner was very pleased with the team's performance for the weekend.
"We made three runs, the car went to the finish line three times, never smoked the tires, never aborted a run. Each run we made, Aaron [Brooks, crew chief] and the crew made changes, and the car got quicker on each run. The first round of eliminations, we were the quickest car in the lane we ran, which was not the lane of choice.
"The engine looks perfect, we didn't' break any parts. So, if you look at our team's performance at the Gatornationals, it far exceeded the stats sheet which says we had a first round loss.
"I'd say we had a pretty darn good first race together," Hawley said.
He added, "We're all upbeat and we're enthusiastic about the future. The team did well, the car performed well, and we're excited to be back out there soon."
Hawley said his next outing in the Funny Car will be when the team goes to the Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals in Atlanta.
