CLERMONT, Ind. – At every NHRA Full Throttle Series race, TJ Zizzo and the PEAK Motor Oil/Herculiner Top Fuel team go, well, Full Throttle or go home. Saturday night, the team ran a 3.919 second ET at 301.27 mph, good enough to put them solidly in the field for Monday’s 57th Annual Mac Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals. So on Sunday, the team went full throttle. In the first round, Zizzo smoked the tires. And in the second?
Boom.
“Today, we went up there and pushed it to the limit,” Zizzo said, after qualifying 14th for the Big Go. “Smoked the tires the first time. Then figuring, ‘Hey, let’s push this baby and see what she’ll do,’ (in the last round) we went to around 300 feet or so and ka-BOOM! That was the big one.”
Very rarely does the team ever cause the NHRA’s Safety Safari to hit the track for a lengthy cleanup. And despite it being a common occurrence Sunday by several teams, Zizzo doesn’t like being a contributor, although he’ll admit sometimes it has to be done.
“It’s not something that we like to do, but if you’re not pushing the envelope in these cars to the limit, you’re not trying hard enough,” he said. “Once in awhile, it’s going to happen. Needless to say, we’ve qualified at the Big Go, we’re looking forward to tomorrow, and we’ll just work really hard tonight. A lot of very long hours for a very early morning.”
The PEAK Motor Oil/Herculiner team faces third-place qualifier Brandon Bernstein in the first round of eliminations Monday. Zizzo is 0-3 against the son of the legendary “King of Speed” Kenny Bernstein, but has not raced him since 2005 at the now-defunct Gateway International Raceway. Antron Brown earned P1 for the Top Fuel class with an ET of 3.818 seconds at 322.96 mph. He faces Shawn Langdon in the first round.
Eliminations are scheduled for Monday at 11 a.m. For more information on the event or for tickets, visit NHRA.com.
Boom.
“Today, we went up there and pushed it to the limit,” Zizzo said, after qualifying 14th for the Big Go. “Smoked the tires the first time. Then figuring, ‘Hey, let’s push this baby and see what she’ll do,’ (in the last round) we went to around 300 feet or so and ka-BOOM! That was the big one.”
Very rarely does the team ever cause the NHRA’s Safety Safari to hit the track for a lengthy cleanup. And despite it being a common occurrence Sunday by several teams, Zizzo doesn’t like being a contributor, although he’ll admit sometimes it has to be done.
“It’s not something that we like to do, but if you’re not pushing the envelope in these cars to the limit, you’re not trying hard enough,” he said. “Once in awhile, it’s going to happen. Needless to say, we’ve qualified at the Big Go, we’re looking forward to tomorrow, and we’ll just work really hard tonight. A lot of very long hours for a very early morning.”
The PEAK Motor Oil/Herculiner team faces third-place qualifier Brandon Bernstein in the first round of eliminations Monday. Zizzo is 0-3 against the son of the legendary “King of Speed” Kenny Bernstein, but has not raced him since 2005 at the now-defunct Gateway International Raceway. Antron Brown earned P1 for the Top Fuel class with an ET of 3.818 seconds at 322.96 mph. He faces Shawn Langdon in the first round.
Eliminations are scheduled for Monday at 11 a.m. For more information on the event or for tickets, visit NHRA.com.
