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SONOMA, Calif. - Rookie NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster standout Spencer Massey suffered a small setback to his and car owner/tuner Gene Snow's national championship hopes with a first round loss at this past weekend's Fram-Autolite Nationals at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. Despite the early round loss, Massey still moved to second place in national points standings.
Massey, 23, of Ft. Worth, Texas, looked very strong in qualifying, placing the Snow tuned Injected Nitro Dragster third in the field with a 5.298 at 260.91 mph. In his first round bout with Johnny Ahten's injected fueler, Massey took the jump off the line, but immediately went up in smoke. Ahten had the same problems, but was able to get hooked up quicker and took the win.
"It really surprised us it smoked the tires like that," stated Massey. "The conditions were pretty similar to when we ran that 5.29, and we had backed it down a little from that. The track was a little warmer, so I guess that's what got us. It smoked the tires and I didn't see him, so I tried to pedal it, but every time I got back on the throttle, it just smoked the tires again. I tried to let the car settle then get back on it, but it just wouldn't stick; it took pedaling it four times before it hooked up. By then, he had hooked up and got around me."
"It's just part of learning one of these cars," Massey continued. "Looking back I should have eased back into the throttle and grabbed some brake. We're all looking forward to Brainerd to try to put this behind us. We just have to move on."
The team will get one week off before heading north to Brainerd, Minn., for the Lucas Oil Nationals. There the team will continue their pursuit of the Lucas Oil National Championship.
Check out Rucker Performance's complete line of Custom Motorcycles, custom paint jobs and more at http://www.ruckerperformance.com/
In conditions where only the best oil will do, veterans like Gene Snow choose Red Line Synthetic Oil. Find out more at http://www.redlineoil.com/
Massey overpowers track in round one
SONOMA, Calif. - Rookie NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster standout Spencer Massey suffered a small setback to his and car owner/tuner Gene Snow's national championship hopes with a first round loss at this past weekend's Fram-Autolite Nationals at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. Despite the early round loss, Massey still moved to second place in national points standings.
Massey, 23, of Ft. Worth, Texas, looked very strong in qualifying, placing the Snow tuned Injected Nitro Dragster third in the field with a 5.298 at 260.91 mph. In his first round bout with Johnny Ahten's injected fueler, Massey took the jump off the line, but immediately went up in smoke. Ahten had the same problems, but was able to get hooked up quicker and took the win.
"It really surprised us it smoked the tires like that," stated Massey. "The conditions were pretty similar to when we ran that 5.29, and we had backed it down a little from that. The track was a little warmer, so I guess that's what got us. It smoked the tires and I didn't see him, so I tried to pedal it, but every time I got back on the throttle, it just smoked the tires again. I tried to let the car settle then get back on it, but it just wouldn't stick; it took pedaling it four times before it hooked up. By then, he had hooked up and got around me."
"It's just part of learning one of these cars," Massey continued. "Looking back I should have eased back into the throttle and grabbed some brake. We're all looking forward to Brainerd to try to put this behind us. We just have to move on."
The team will get one week off before heading north to Brainerd, Minn., for the Lucas Oil Nationals. There the team will continue their pursuit of the Lucas Oil National Championship.
Check out Rucker Performance's complete line of Custom Motorcycles, custom paint jobs and more at http://www.ruckerperformance.com/
In conditions where only the best oil will do, veterans like Gene Snow choose Red Line Synthetic Oil. Find out more at http://www.redlineoil.com/
