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Johnny Rocca - Darlington Report 99-05-08

Johnny Rocca's Prolong Ironhorse Succombs To Breakage In The First Round DARLINGTON, SC-- All of the anticipations of a stunning performance back in March were dashed by a puddle of oil that accumulated under the Prolong-sponsored, ...

Edited: May 8, 2001, 12:19 PM

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Johnny Rocca's Prolong Ironhorse Succombs To Breakage In The First Round

DARLINGTON, SC-- All of the anticipations of a stunning performance back in March were dashed by a puddle of oil that accumulated under the Prolong-sponsored, Ironhorse in May. Thus was the case as the Johnny Rocca 1949 Mercury kicked the rods on a burnout and forced driver Troy Critchley to shut off the eye-catching machine during the rescheduled final eliminations at the 27th annual, IHRA Prolong Super Lubricants Winter Nationals.

During the originally scheduled date, Critchley was the early leader in qualifying as a result of being the first Pro Modified in national event competition at Darlington to run in the 6.30s. The former Australian champion hammered out a 6.394/215.48 for the early lead in qualifying. The team failed to improve in the next three sessions and fell to the fifth spot where they were paired opposite Glen May's supercharged, Thunderbird.

Rocca was extremely disappointed with what transpired today. "It's an unfortunate part of drag racing," he explained. "We are always at the mercy of parts and in our case, the parts failed us today. But, we will be back to race another day."

Rocca and Critchley plan to continue their championship conquest at the IHRA Amalie Oil Summer Nationals in Cordova, Ill., June 18- 20. The Native American and Aussie duo, along with each Pro Modified contestant, will be afforded two qualifying attempts on Friday and another two on Saturday with final eliminations slated for Sunday. This event will be televised on ESPN2 with the dates TBA in an upcoming issue.

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