NHRA

Gainesville: Dave Connolly preview

Connolly Wants to Turn Good Test Results into Round Wins at Gainesville GAINESVILLE, Fla., March 12, 2007 -- Bravo! Brands Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: BRVO): Competing in two NHRA categories at one race is nothing new for Dave Connolly, who ...

Published: Mar 13, 2007, 6:29 AM

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Connolly Wants to Turn Good Test Results into Round Wins at Gainesville

GAINESVILLE, Fla., March 12, 2007 --  Bravo! Brands Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board:
BRVO): Competing in two NHRA categories  at one race is nothing new for Dave
Connolly, who already has same-race  runner-up finishes in Pro Stock and Super
Comp at Seattle in  2004.

But driving two Pro Stock cars during a test session is.

Connolly drove his TORCO/Slammers Ultimate Milk Pro Stock Chevy Cobalt as well as teammate Jeg Coughlin's Slammers Ultimate Milk Cobalt during the team' s three-day test session last week. Connolly said test results "showed a lot of promise" for the ACDelco Gatornationals, March 16-18, at Gainesville Raceway. "We'd like to start going more rounds on Sunday."

That  potential is essential to the team's success as Connolly and Coughlin
continue  their quest for places among the top eight in NHRA's new Countdown to
the  Championship format.  The contenders will be trimmed to eight following
17  races and to four after 21 of the 23 events.

"I feel confident  going into Gainesville," said Connolly, who has had
diabolically different  results here in his last two visits.  He was runner-up in
2005 and missed  the starting lineup a year ago.

"We have nowhere else to go but up as far as last year's performance goes," he quipped. "But I think we'll be in good shape from both driving and performance perspectives, and I'm excited about it. With the cars performing better we were able to do some things that made the driving side a little easier too."

The  Elyria, Ohio native is getting a feel for the team approach that builds
on  information gleaned from both cars.

"This is probably the  first time we've brought both cars to a test session,"
 he said.  "We had  both crews, but Jeg wasn't able to make it due to
business commitments.   That just meant more seat time for me.  I had no problem
doing that at  all.  We made 31 runs in three days, 22 in my Cobalt and nine in
Jeg's.  Preparing both cars and getting to make double runs definitely  helps.

"We were testing a lot of different things on the cars and  when you put it
all together we learned a lot.  We are finding out more  about what our cars
want. We can definitely get a lot more information from two  cars. This was the
most progress we've made in any test  session."

Connolly, who sits fourth (127 points) after two races,  is eager to at least
equal his 2005 Gatornationals performance level.  And  he'll be doing double
duty again because he's also driving his dad, Ray's, Super  Gas Corvette.

"This will be a fun race for me, not only because I'm  driving my dad's
Corvette, but I'll only be about two hours from where I've been  living for the
last couple of years. I'll have a lot of friends coming --  including my
girlfriend and her dad and brother.  That makes for a good  time.  I'm Irish and it'
s St. Patrick's Day weekend, too.  Maybe we  can get a little Irish luck."

He begins vying for a berth in the  top16 starters Friday at noon at 2:30
p.m.  Saturday's qualifying sessions  also are slated for noon and 2:30 p.m.
Sunday's eliminations begin at 11  a.m.

-credit: dcr

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