Commerce: Chip Ellis final summary

COMMERCE, Ga. (May 15, 2005) -- After a rain delay of four hours and five minutes, eliminations for the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals presented by Pontiac got underway on Sunday at Atlanta Dragway.

In the opening round, Chip Ellis, aboard the G Squared/S&S Buell, turned back the POWERade point leader entering this event, Steve Johnson. Ellis covered the quarter-mile in 7.149 seconds.

After the opening round, the rains returned and racing was delayed for an additional 2 hours and 10 minutes. Racing resumed at about 7 o'clock under sunny skies.

The quarterfinals found the G Squared/S&S-powered Buell of Ellis matched against the G Squared-built, S&S-powered Buell of Chris Rivas.

>From start to finish it was all Rivas on the Mohegan Sun Buell. Rivas recorded a run of 7.184 seconds at 180.67 mph to 7.366 seconds at 174.30 mph for Ellis.

"I thought we were ready, but this weekend proved that the G Squared team isn't ready yet to perform with the consistency to win," said George Smith, who along with George Bryce own G Squared Motorsports. "We'll go back to Americus (Georgia) and review all the data from this weekend and have a plan ready for Columbus."

The Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals was the first of five races in seven weeks for the Pro Stock Motorcycles. Next up is the Pontiac Performance Nationals at National Trail Raceway near Columbus, Ohio, next weekend (May 19-22). After two weeks off, the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series then begins back-to-back-to-back races in Joliet, Ill. (June 9-12), Englishtown, N.J. (June 16-19) and St. Louis (June 24-26).

TELEVISION: A repeat of the same day coverage of eliminations can be seen on ESPN2 early Monday morning, May 16, from 2 until 3:30 a.m. Television time is EASTERN TIME (ET) and subject to change at anytime. Check local listings.

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