ROBERT PATRICK AIMS FOR CONSISTENCY HEADED INTO GRAND BEND
GRAND BEND, ONT. – Robert Patrick needed his victory in Edmonton two weeks ago for a couple of reasons. First, he needed the triumph to rebound from a disappointing first round loss in Tulsa. Secondly, he wanted to nail the final puzzle in his Canadian trifecta.
Patrick’s success during the recently completed IHRA Rocky Mountain Nationals made him the only Torco’s CompetitionPlus Pro Stock driver thus far to win at least one title in each of the three stops in Canada. If Patrick has his way this weekend, he’ll become the first to double up at the IHRA Mopar Canadian Nationals in Grand Bend, Ontario, located outside of Toronto.
“We are coming to some of these tracks on the schedule that we have confidence at,” Patrick said. “If I can drive well then we should have a chance at doing well. I feel pretty good about that.”
Patrick, who trails current point leader Pete Berner by only 18 points, won at the Grand Bend Motorplex in 2005. He not only finished runner-up last year but also drove his way to a victory at the following event during the 2006 event in Milan, Michigan.
Momentum is something Patrick has a penchant for developing. He’s poised to exhibit a bit of it this weekend. The start of this snowball effect can be traced to a wounded engine in Tulsa.
“We have found some stuff since Tulsa that gives us a lot of confidence headed into this part of the season,” Patrick said. “We hurt an engine during the original date and brought everything home and fixed it. We changed some things on the dyno and the engine responded favorable.”
Patrick had just one test lap to procure the appropriate tune-up upon returning to Tulsa. A first round loss in Tulsa sent the team back to the conference room to develop a game plan for Edmonton and the subsequent stops on the Knoll Gas Nitro Jam drag racing tour.
“We didn’t have any more time to test before Edmonton than we did in returning to Tulsa,” Patrick said. “We went back to the basics, knowing full and well we’d be sacrificing the gains we had made on the dyno.”
Patrick’s hunch was correct as his Purvis Ford Shelby Cobra was the quickest throughout eliminations and established track record on Sunday.
That leads us to this weekend’s challenge and you can bet that Patrick won’t leave those newfound gains courtesy of engine builder Bob Ingles on the table much longer. In fact, he’s going to make several hits this week before hitting the road. He’s gunning for the hottest driver in the class currently – Pete Berner.
“We have a little time to work on our new combination and test with before Grand Bend,” Patrick said. “Pete is running exceptionally well now and I feel with the new things we are doing now that we’ll be able to run with him. If we can get the back half to run as well as what we are doing to the 330, I think we will be in good shape.”
All of this works perfectly for Patrick with five out of the six remaining races scheduled in the next two months. His target is consistency and how to maintain it. This
“I think we are coming into our own at the right time,” Patrick said.
In 1994, we won two races and runner-upped two and still managed to lose the title to Billy Huff. Last year we won some races as well as the shootout, set the record and ran really well. The big part of our downfall has been in maintaining consistency.
“My team and I have talked at length about that. It’s clear to us that we have more power than we are running this car at. Even if we go out and qualify #1 and finish in the semis, it beats losing in the first round. We sat down with Bob Ingles and determined that consistency is the highest priority.”
Winning this weekend ranks high on Patrick’s priority list.
