POMONA, Calif. – After laying down a 3.870 ET in the first round of qualifying for the Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals Thursday and having Friday’s round canceled due to rain, TJ Zizzo and the PEAK Motor Oil/Herculiner NHRA Full Throttle Series Top Fuel team were ready to hit the track Saturday at the Auto Club Raceway. But after two rounds, resulting in ETs of 4.636 and 3.952 respectively, Zizzo Racing saw their starting spot in Sunday’s eliminations drop from seventh to 11th.
The team, led by Lisle, Ill.-native Mike Kern, hoped to repeat their time from Thursday and, for the most part, was able to accomplish that. Unfortunately, the No. 317 rail fell victim to engine gremlins at the end of both passes.
“We had a little problem with the supercharger (in the first round) and gave up the ghost a little bit,” Kern said. “So that run was a scratch.
“On the second run, we went out there and tried to repeat that Thursday time again and bump up a spot or two. It went out and did what we call ‘ker-plunked the motor,’ where the clutch locks up and grabs the motor. And it looks like it pushed a head gasket out on us. So we’ll get her fixed and get her ready for tomorrow morning.”
As the teams arrived to the track Saturday morning, there were questions as to whether or not any racing would take place at all. The weather forecast all week called for thunderstorms and a hard rain producing sizable hail mid-morning seemed to bear that out. Fortunately for the teams and the fans, NHRA officials were able to prep the track and, with Mother Nature’s cooperation, the last two rounds of qualifying were run as scheduled.
For Zizzo Racing, improvements are being made at every race. As such, times and qualifying positions that would have been cause for celebration in the past is now reason for long faces in the PEAK Motor Oil/Herculiner pit.
“As I’m crossing the finish line today and I look up and see that 3.95 on the scoreboard, and we knew we hurt some parts on that pass, I was disappointed,” Zizzo said, taking a break from thrashing on the car with his team. “We were all disappointed. We expect more. I expect more. Our expectations have grown exponentially from where we were last year. We wanted to see a 3.85 on the board.”
In the first round of eliminations Sunday, Zizzo faces sixth-place qualifier Shawn Langdon. Langdon earned his spot with an ET of 3.847 at 314.31 mph. Larry Dixon, who earned his third NHRA Full Throttle Series Top Fuel title at this very track in November, continued his domination of the class Saturday, earning top qualifier honors with a national record ET of 3.770 at a track-record speed of 324.98 mph.
TJ IN THE MEDIA: Zizzo has made news all weekend with his new paint scheme designed by legendary drag racing artist Kenny Youngblood. Outlets such as CompetitionPlus.com, DragRacingOnline.com, and the Los Angeles Daily News have all run stories on the collaboration between Zizzo Racing and Youngblood. Zizzo has also appeared on a number of motorsports shows talking about the 2011 season, including Jerry’s Racing Garage at GoFlo.com and the internet-based racing program “The Racing Nuts.”
Fans of TJ Zizzo and Zizzo Racing can find updates and photos of the PEAK/Herculiner Top Fuel team by checking out ZizzoRacing.com, Twitter.com/ZizzoRacing, and Facebook.com/ZizzoRacing. Videos of TJ and Zizzo Racing can be found at YouTube.com/TJZizzo.
Sunday’s Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals finals kick off Sunday at 11 a.m. local time immediately following pre-race ceremonies. Eliminations will be carried live at ESPN3.com and will air on ESPN2 at 5 p.m. CT. ESPN2’s NHRA Full Throttle Series coverage begins Sunday morning at 9 a.m. CT with NHRA RaceDay live from the Auto Club Raceway.
The team, led by Lisle, Ill.-native Mike Kern, hoped to repeat their time from Thursday and, for the most part, was able to accomplish that. Unfortunately, the No. 317 rail fell victim to engine gremlins at the end of both passes.
“We had a little problem with the supercharger (in the first round) and gave up the ghost a little bit,” Kern said. “So that run was a scratch.
“On the second run, we went out there and tried to repeat that Thursday time again and bump up a spot or two. It went out and did what we call ‘ker-plunked the motor,’ where the clutch locks up and grabs the motor. And it looks like it pushed a head gasket out on us. So we’ll get her fixed and get her ready for tomorrow morning.”
As the teams arrived to the track Saturday morning, there were questions as to whether or not any racing would take place at all. The weather forecast all week called for thunderstorms and a hard rain producing sizable hail mid-morning seemed to bear that out. Fortunately for the teams and the fans, NHRA officials were able to prep the track and, with Mother Nature’s cooperation, the last two rounds of qualifying were run as scheduled.
For Zizzo Racing, improvements are being made at every race. As such, times and qualifying positions that would have been cause for celebration in the past is now reason for long faces in the PEAK Motor Oil/Herculiner pit.
“As I’m crossing the finish line today and I look up and see that 3.95 on the scoreboard, and we knew we hurt some parts on that pass, I was disappointed,” Zizzo said, taking a break from thrashing on the car with his team. “We were all disappointed. We expect more. I expect more. Our expectations have grown exponentially from where we were last year. We wanted to see a 3.85 on the board.”
In the first round of eliminations Sunday, Zizzo faces sixth-place qualifier Shawn Langdon. Langdon earned his spot with an ET of 3.847 at 314.31 mph. Larry Dixon, who earned his third NHRA Full Throttle Series Top Fuel title at this very track in November, continued his domination of the class Saturday, earning top qualifier honors with a national record ET of 3.770 at a track-record speed of 324.98 mph.
TJ IN THE MEDIA: Zizzo has made news all weekend with his new paint scheme designed by legendary drag racing artist Kenny Youngblood. Outlets such as CompetitionPlus.com, DragRacingOnline.com, and the Los Angeles Daily News have all run stories on the collaboration between Zizzo Racing and Youngblood. Zizzo has also appeared on a number of motorsports shows talking about the 2011 season, including Jerry’s Racing Garage at GoFlo.com and the internet-based racing program “The Racing Nuts.”
Fans of TJ Zizzo and Zizzo Racing can find updates and photos of the PEAK/Herculiner Top Fuel team by checking out ZizzoRacing.com, Twitter.com/ZizzoRacing, and Facebook.com/ZizzoRacing. Videos of TJ and Zizzo Racing can be found at YouTube.com/TJZizzo.
Sunday’s Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals finals kick off Sunday at 11 a.m. local time immediately following pre-race ceremonies. Eliminations will be carried live at ESPN3.com and will air on ESPN2 at 5 p.m. CT. ESPN2’s NHRA Full Throttle Series coverage begins Sunday morning at 9 a.m. CT with NHRA RaceDay live from the Auto Club Raceway.
