Dave Hirata IRP preview

Hirata looking to break through in Indy

CLERMONT, Ind. - After qualifying strong at his past two events only to lose in the first round to minor parts failure, NHRA A/Fuel Dragster driver Dave Hirata is looking to break through at this weekend's Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park, the biggest event in all of drag racing. Hirata made it to the finals in 2000, and hopes to make it one more round this year in his VP Racing Fuels backed machine.

Hirata, who helps run the family auto body and auto repair shop, Hirata's Lowell Auto in Lowell, Ind., hopes to use a plan of steady improvement and minimizing nickel and dime parts failures to accomplish his goal of putting his VP Race Fuels injected-nitro dragster in the winner's circle.

"We just want to go out there and make four good runs in qualifying," said Hirata. "If we can start out in the high .30's and gradually improve each pass, hopefully we'll end up in the high .20's by the end of qualifying or the end of the weekend. It all depends on the weather. We've done well here in the past, but that doesn't matter when you got guys like Bradshaw running .20's. We're not going to try to run like that right off the bat, we want to work our way up to it."

"We're pretty hungry right now," Hirata continued. "We went out and qualified really well at our last two races only to break a 27 cent part in the first round and lose. To know you have a car that's capable of winning and then get sidelined by something like that really gets to you. We're ready to put that behind us this weekend and do our best for our sponsors VP Racing Fuels, Champion, Fram and R&R Racing Products."

Qualifying begins on Thursday for the alcohol cars. Stay tuned to InsideTopAlcohol.com for the latest news in alcohol racing.