Denver: Jerry Toliver final report

Toliver's ROCKSTAR Energy Drink Toyota Gets First Round Win in Quarterfinal Finish

Jerry Toliver and the ROCKSTAR Energy Drink Toyota Solara Funny Car team really earned their first POWERade Series round victory in the Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway Sunday.

After Toliver qualified an impressive fourth (4.893 seconds at 319.60 mph) Saturday night he experienced parachute problems that sent the car into a sand trap at the end of the track, damaging the Solara body. The team then worked preparing the new body until 2 a.m., went to the hotel for a few hours sleep and returned early Sunday morning to finish putting it together.

They did a very good job, because Toliver got his first 2007 win light against Jim Head in the first round. Toliver won with an elapsed time of 5.156 seconds at 293.28 mph to 7.015 at 128.91 mph and advanced to the quarterfinals.

"We are happy to get ROCKSTAR its first round win," said Toliver. "We had a great weekend. We won our first round and our speed was the fastest of the race. Our crew really got after it and nothing stopped them from getting the car ready to race. I'm proud of them. They were flawless."

Ron Capps, the eventual race runner-up, won the quarterfinal race when the ROCKSTAR Toyota had traction trouble. Capps' time was 5.048 to Toliver's 8.647.

-credit: jtr