Jason Line and the Summit Racing team had every reason to be optimistic entering Sunday’s final eliminations of the NHRA SuperNationals in Englishtown, N.J.. After all, their Pro Stock Pontiac had been the class of the field in qualifying, resetting the Old Bridge Township track record at 6.508-seconds en route to the No. 1 qualifying position. Their impressive performance continued in the first round, as the KB Racing entry recorded the quickest pass of the first round at 6.526-seconds with a top speed of 211.16 mph to defeat local favorite Bob Benza, who carded a 6.609-second, 209.01 mph effort in the losing cause.
This set the stage for a second-round encounter with impressive rookie Vincent Nobile, who was racing in front of his hometown fans. Unfortunately, Line fell shy of matching his opening round performance, and even though he was able to match his opponent’s 6.568-second time, in one of the closest races of the day, the four thousandths of a second difference in starting line reaction time proved to be the difference, putting a premature and frustrating end to his day.
“After having one of the quickest and most consistent cars throughout qualifying and the first round today, we didn’t do a very good job in the quarters,” said Line. “For some reason, it blew the tires off at the hit, and then shook all the way through second gear. Ironically, we still could have won if I had been four thousandths quicker on the tree, but I guess it wasn’t our day.
“As close as the competition is in Pro Stock right now, you just can’t afford to make any mistakes if you want to win. Unfortunately, we were a little off our game in the second round, and it cost us. What makes it hard is that I believe we had the best car on the grounds this weekend, and we’re not leaving with the trophy, which is hard to take.
“However, we’re not going to dwell on that. We’re going to learn from our experience here this weekend so we can avoid doing it again in the future. We have two weeks before our next race in Bristol, and some work to do before then. We know we have a fast Summit Racing Pontiac that is capable of winning races - we just need to take full advantage of it.”
This set the stage for a second-round encounter with impressive rookie Vincent Nobile, who was racing in front of his hometown fans. Unfortunately, Line fell shy of matching his opening round performance, and even though he was able to match his opponent’s 6.568-second time, in one of the closest races of the day, the four thousandths of a second difference in starting line reaction time proved to be the difference, putting a premature and frustrating end to his day.
“After having one of the quickest and most consistent cars throughout qualifying and the first round today, we didn’t do a very good job in the quarters,” said Line. “For some reason, it blew the tires off at the hit, and then shook all the way through second gear. Ironically, we still could have won if I had been four thousandths quicker on the tree, but I guess it wasn’t our day.
“As close as the competition is in Pro Stock right now, you just can’t afford to make any mistakes if you want to win. Unfortunately, we were a little off our game in the second round, and it cost us. What makes it hard is that I believe we had the best car on the grounds this weekend, and we’re not leaving with the trophy, which is hard to take.
“However, we’re not going to dwell on that. We’re going to learn from our experience here this weekend so we can avoid doing it again in the future. We have two weeks before our next race in Bristol, and some work to do before then. We know we have a fast Summit Racing Pontiac that is capable of winning races - we just need to take full advantage of it.”
