Commerce: Cory McClenathan final summary

McClenathan's FRAM Boost Dragster Runs Well, but Schumacher's Is Quicker

Cory McClenathan shook his head in disbelief after the opening round of the rain-delayed Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway.

"We had a pretty good run (against Tony Schumacher) and got beat," he said. He'd driven the Carrier Boyz Racing FRAM Boost Top Fuel dragster to a time of 4.561 seconds at a very fast 330.39 mph -- the quickest and fastest on the six-run-old chassis -- but Schumacher was untouchable with an eye-opening 4.448-second effort at 331.28 mph.

"I don't have anything bad to say," added McClenathan, who was relieved to have the last hectic week over. "I'm really proud of our whole team -- Mark and Andy Carrier, (crew chief) Wes Cerny, (assistant crew chief) Tony Shortall and the whole team for what they accomplished this week.

"Everybody worked hard to come back (from his qualifying crash at Bristol, Tenn.) and make it a good weekend. We ran 330 mph and Wes and Tony tuned us to a good elapsed time. Obviously they weren't taking us lightly."

The new car had back-to-back full-throttle runs, 4.580 seconds to qualify 10th Saturday afternoon and Sunday's 4.561. "We really feel good about way the car ran. Now if we can only do something to improve our racing luck . . ."

McClenathan, now 11th in points with 291, is looking forward to a few days off. The team resumes competition at the Pontiac Performance Nationals, May 19-21, at Columbus, Ohio.

The four-hour rain delay was accompanied by clouds and cooler temperatures that resulted in quicker and faster runs.

-cbr-