Englishtown: John Connolly final summary

Connolly Earns Quarterfinal Finish at SuperNationals

The performance of Evan  Knoll's Torco Racing Fuels/Seelye Wright Automotive
Group Chevy Cobalt picked up  during Sunday's elimination rounds and Dave
Connolly drove it into the  quarterfinals of the Pro Care Rx SuperNationals at
Raceway  Park.

Connolly ran his best time of the weekend in a first-round  victory over Max
Naylor -- 6.614 seconds at 209.20 mph to 6.652 at 208.46 mph --  setting up a
quarterfinal match against NHRA POWERade Series Pro stock point  leader Greg
Anderson. Anderson had run a slower 6.698-second elapsed time in his  round win.

Anderson's car ran quicker, giving him a narrow  victory with a 6.635 at
209.52 mph against Connolly's 6.639 at 208.49  mph.

"We didn't expect him to run another 6.69," said a  disappointed Connolly.  "
It was pretty close. I knew I had to leave before  him."

Anderson had a .025-second reaction time to Connolly's .056. "We need to work on our reaction times," Connolly added. "This class is too tough to win rounds with .030 bulbs."

His quarter-mile times slowed Saturday, "but the guys got it fixed (Sunday) morning."

Connolly gets the equivalent of a "home" race next week when the series makes its first appearance at Norwalk, Ohio, for the Summit Nationals. The track is a short drive from the Elyria, Ohio, native's home, and he competed in Sportsman classes at the track.

He remained third in series points with 660.

-credit: jc/jls