Dallas Tom Martino Post Qualifying Notes

Tom Martino completed his best qualifying effort of the season by recording the best pass of his Pro Stock career in Saturday's evening session at the O'Reilly Fall Nationals in Ennis Texas. In fact, Martino improved on each run during time trials, culminating with his 6.843-second, 201.43-mph effort, which placed the CENTURY 21 Firebird third on Sunday's final eliminations ladder. Martino's first round opponent will be 14th qualifier Mark Pawuk, whom Martino defeated in their most recent encounter at last year's Winston Finals in Pomona. Ironically, despite the impressive numbers, Martino felt his last run was not the best of his four qualifying passes.

"We made a good run every time, which is all you can ask for. Actually, that last pass might have been our worst one of qualifying. It just went fast. We had found and corrected a problem with our motor just before the last session, which probably gave us some additional horsepower. But on the run, it carried the wheels, moved out of the groove and moved around. . Basically, it went dead left and then took off. That was not a pretty 6.84, and if it had gone straight, I know I could have run a 6.83.

"Still, it feels good to run that well. I believe we have a very good package right now with this CENTURY 21 Firebird. I'm looking forward to going four rounds tomorrow."