Denver: Ryan Schnitz final summary

Schnitz Takes it to Second Round

Last year, Ryan Schnitz won the NHRA Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway near Denver, Colorado. As he walked through the Bandimere pits this weekend, Ryan was startled to see so many fans that recognized him. "People would say 'Great job last year. Good luck this weekend,'" reported Ryan. That made it doubly disappointing when he went out in round 2 of Pro Stock Motorcycle eliminations.

"GT told me that they broke a shifter linkage, similar to the problem we had in the third round of qualifying," Ryan said about round 1.

"The bike kind of got out of the groove a little bit in round 2. I had to lean off the side to guide it back in, and that does scrub off some ET.

"The big thing is that we qualified in the top half of the field under difficult conditions. But we lost another round to the points leader, and that's what's important. We have to make that up.

"But the crew did a great job. The bike's performance was where it needed to be, but it could have been closer to the number 1 qualifier.

"Sonoma's gonna be completely different than here, and that will be another challenge. The advantage for us coming out west is that it's close to Muzzy's in Oregon. They're gonna tear the bike apart, go through all the electronics and the motor that we ran. But we need to test some things, including the new rear wheel and tire that everybody's talking about."

Schnitz was able to run one motor all weekend in Denver, the one they call "Joey". "He was a happy camper at this altitude and performed fairly well." Maybe Joey will like the wine country, too.

-th