NHRA
Doug Herbert hires new tuner
Herbert enthused as Wes Cerny joins Snap-on team at Brainerd. CHERRYVILLE, N.C., Aug. 11, 2003 - Disappointed with his racecar's performance, Doug Herbert took what he hopes is a giant step toward improving it by hiring veteran Wes Cerny to tune ...
Edited: Aug 13, 2003, 2:21 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Herbert enthused as Wes Cerny joins Snap-on team at Brainerd.
CHERRYVILLE, N.C., Aug. 11, 2003 - Disappointed with his racecar's performance, Doug Herbert took what he hopes is a giant step toward improving it by hiring veteran Wes Cerny to tune his Snap-on Racing Top Fuel dragster.
"Wes will be on board when we get to Brainerd (Minn., site of the Lucas Oil Nationals, Aug. 15-17) and will definitely tune the car there and at Indianapolis (site of the U.S. Nationals, Aug. 29-Sept. 1)," said Herbert. "I want to return to the performance level we had late last year."
With Cerny making the tuning decisions, Herbert enjoyed an exciting finish to the 2002 NHRA POWERade season. He earned his first NHRA No. 1 qualifying position at the second Chicago-area event in September - registering his career-best time of 4.518 seconds - and added another at the second Las Vegas race in October. He also went to the semifinals at four of the last five races, finishing seventh in the final standings.
"I think this will be good for us," added Herbert. "This year, we'd hoped to be able to build from what we learned with Cerny tuning us last year, but we've struggled," added Herbert. "I'm definitely looking at extending Cerny's working relationship with us."
Crew chief Ron Douglas and tuning consultant Jim Brissette remain with the team. "Ron and Brissette will work with Cerny to make sure everything gets done," Herbert said.
Herbert, currently eighth in NHRA POWERade Series with 682 points, wants to get into the top five before the season concludes eight races from now.
"Our goal now is to finish in the top five," Herbert continued. "Our goal at the start of every season is to win the championship, but that's no longer possible. We think it is possible to get to fifth. We're less than five rounds behind Cory (McClenathan, fourth with 778 points)."
Herbert is only three points shy of sixth place John Smith and 31 behind No. 6 David Baca (731).
The Cherryville, N.C., driver returned from the annual "western swing" - races at Denver, Seattle, and Sonoma, Calif., on successive weekends - without a round win at any of those races.
Herbert hasn't advanced past the quarterfinal round in eight previous visits to the Brainerd race track, a statistic he'd like to improve when Lucas Oil Nationals qualifying begins Friday, Aug. 15. Sessions are scheduled at 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. Friday, 1 and 4 p.m. Saturday. Eliminations Sunday begin at 11 a.m.
-dhr-
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Snake Racing statement on recent vehicle accidents
Next article Lee Callaway Scribner wrap up
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Doug Herbert
Massey, Edwards and Worsham claim top qualifying positions at Thunder Valley Nationals
NHRA
NHRA
Massey, Edwards and Worsham claim top qualifying positions at Thunder Valley Nationals
Mike Wallace leads at Charlotte, finishes 15th
NASCAR O'Reilly
NASCAR O'Reilly
Mike Wallace leads at Charlotte, finishes 15th
Final pairings are set for Charlotte Four-Wide Nationals
NHRA
NHRA
Final pairings are set for Charlotte Four-Wide Nationals
Latest news
Mercedes: “We had people who hadn’t done a live pitstop for 15 years” in Singapore GP
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
6 min
Mercedes: “We had people who hadn’t done a live pitstop for 15 years” in Singapore GP
MotoGP to stage demo at F1 United States Grand Prix
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP 1 h
MotoGP to stage demo at F1 United States Grand Prix
WRC star Thierry Neuville makes successful historic circuit racing debut
WRC
WRC WRC 2 h
WRC star Thierry Neuville makes successful historic circuit racing debut
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe