Englishtown: Cory McClenathan eliminations summary

Red-Light ends McClenathan's day in opening round

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J.. (May 18, 2003) -- Cory McClenathan, driver of the Darrell Gwynn Racing/NY Yankees/Berryman Products Dragster, would like to turn his luck around at Englishtown, N.J. during eliminations for the 34th annual K&N Filters SuperNationals presented by Pep Boys.

In the opening round, it was a lucky win, not for Cory Mac but for Larry Dixon. It was over before it started as McClenathan red-lighted (left before the green light) thus negating a 4.557 second pass. He was .059 seconds on the wrong side of perfect (.000) To compound the loss, Dixon lost traction immediately after leaving the starting line.

"You live by the lights  You die by the lights.  I knew right away I was
either really good or really bad.  This time I was on the wrong side of
the clock," said McClenathan.  The bad part is the crew gave me a car
that could win.  Crew one, driver zero.

You hate to do something stupid like this in front of your marketing partners -- Berryman, Winnebago, Mac Tools and MBNA. You also hate to let the team down and lose points. We opened the door for a few drivers right behind us in the point battle. All we can do now is suck it up and go on to Topeka and start over."

Brandon Bernstein apparently escaped serious injury in a horrendous crash in the pair immediately following McClenathan's pass. The rookie driver was transported to a local hospital but x-rays were negative. Bernstein will remain second in points but will lose points to Top Fuel point leader Larry Dixon.

Unofficially, McClenathan currently has 419 points, good for sixth in the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel point standing.

It back-to-back races for McClenathan and the Darrell Gwynn Racing/NY Yankees/Berryman Products Team as the 15th annual NHRA O'Reilly Summer Nationals unfolds next weekend (May 22-25) at Heartland Park Topeka in Topeka, Kan. McClenathan was born in nearby Wichita.

-dgr-