Troxel advances to quarterfinals at Las Vegas
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/m_troxel_508502.jpg" alt="m_troxel_508502" align="right"borders="0"/>
LAS VEGAS, November 2, 2008 -- Melanie Troxel drove the R2B2 Racing Dodge Charger R/T to a holeshot victory over Gary Scelzi in the opening round of Sunday's ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and it helped her move into 11th place in NHRA POWERade Series points.
She didn't qualify for the six-race playoffs in her first season at the controls of a Funny Car, but Troxel is the "best of the rest" with only one more event remaining at Pomona, Calif.
Her .091-second reaction against Scelzi's .111 provided the nine-thousandth of a second winning margin -- 4.134 seconds at 301.80 mph to 4.123 at 299.33 mph. She left first against second-round foe John Force, too, but he got the victory with a 4.077 at 309.77 to her 4.150 at 304.87.
"The car is running great," said Troxel. "We just lost a good race to John second round. We’ve got a car that can go up, I think, and race anybody. We need a few breaks here and there, and just a little tweak on the tune-up.
"I think everybody on the team is very happy with the performance. We have no complaints; we’re just running out of races to get that last win of the season."
The Southern California Automobile Association Finals unfolds Nov. 13-16 in Pomona
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/m_troxel_508502.jpg" alt="m_troxel_508502" align="right"borders="0"/>
LAS VEGAS, November 2, 2008 -- Melanie Troxel drove the R2B2 Racing Dodge Charger R/T to a holeshot victory over Gary Scelzi in the opening round of Sunday's ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and it helped her move into 11th place in NHRA POWERade Series points.
She didn't qualify for the six-race playoffs in her first season at the controls of a Funny Car, but Troxel is the "best of the rest" with only one more event remaining at Pomona, Calif.
Her .091-second reaction against Scelzi's .111 provided the nine-thousandth of a second winning margin -- 4.134 seconds at 301.80 mph to 4.123 at 299.33 mph. She left first against second-round foe John Force, too, but he got the victory with a 4.077 at 309.77 to her 4.150 at 304.87.
"The car is running great," said Troxel. "We just lost a good race to John second round. We’ve got a car that can go up, I think, and race anybody. We need a few breaks here and there, and just a little tweak on the tune-up.
"I think everybody on the team is very happy with the performance. We have no complaints; we’re just running out of races to get that last win of the season."
The Southern California Automobile Association Finals unfolds Nov. 13-16 in Pomona
