Thompson Race Team Ends Year With a Great Performance at Pomona
Pomona- Clint Thompson came into the NHRA Auto Club Finals looking for his second national event win of the year at a venue where he has never won at before: Pomona. While a big Pomona win still eludes him for yet another season, Thompson can be happy throughout the off season with how well his team performed at the final race of the year.
When Thompson pulled his Dutch Bros. Coffee / Cascade Auto Group Monte Carlo into the water box, the 5.81 bump spot on the scoreboard was his previous time. With a couple cars behind him that could still bump him out of the show, it was time to step up, and step up he did, Thompson pulled a rabbit out of his hat by grabbing third with a sizzling 5.63 at 256 MPH. This set up a first round paring with none other than fellow Division 6 racer Hank Coolidge driving a Pontiac Firebird. At the hit, Thompson almost cut it too close with a perfect .000 light. Coolidge had a respectable 0.072 reaction time but was unable to catch up to Thompson who was long gone with low ET of the round. At the stripe Thompson recorded a 5.66 at 257 MPH to Coolidge’s valiant 5.79 at 247 MPH.
Thompson’s low ET in the first round earned him lane choice against Jay Payne in the second round. This time Thompson was out of the second out of the gate with a 0.085 reaction time to Payne’s quicker 0.051. Payne never looked back and recorded a 5.64 at 258 MPH to end Thompson’s season a couple of rounds to early. Thompson still ran a respectable 5.72 at 255 MPH but it wasn’t enough to get by the Valvoline team.
After the race, Thompson was still upbeat and had this to say about about the difficult loss. "It's an honor to be here competing against some of the best teams in the business" Thompson said, "Jay is a great racer and tough to beat." "The car shook the tires in low gear with the same setup that had been smooth and fast the previous two runs, It just goes to show how hard it is to win one of these things, hats off to Jay and his team, they did a great job this weekend". " I would like to thank my sponsors, Dutch Bros. Coffee, Cascade Auto Group, RPMOil.com, and RPM Chassis Inc. for their support this season, and special thanks to my crew for the excellent job they do every race preparing the car"
Thompson and his Cascade Auto Group/Dutch Bros funny car team will be working hard over the winter to find a little more horsepower but still proved this year they can run with anybody. They will be ready to go for the NHRA Winternationals when Thompson will get yet another shot at historic Pomona quarter mile.
