Gainesville: Dave Connolly Saturday summary

Connolly, SKULL GEAR Team Miss Starting Line-up by Slim Margin

Eleven-thousandths of a second separated  Dave Connolly from the ACDelco
Gatornationals starting Pro Stock field Saturday  afternoon at Gainesville Raceway.

It wasn't what was expected, but,  then again neither were engine problems
nor the usual uncertainty of dealing  with a new race car.  The SKULL GEAR
Chevrolet Cobalt that was making its  NHRA POWERade Series debut, had a best
elapsed time of 6.712 seconds at 205.29  mph.  Dave Howard's 6.701-second time was
16th in the quickest Pro Stock  starting line-up in history.

"I think we hurt the motor on our first qualifying session," said crew chief Terry Adams, "and we didn't run well on our second run. We had a bad run in Saturday's first session and then we over-estimated the track on our last try."

The team changed motors for Saturday and the car had traction problems on the initial attempt, "then moved to the right and I over-corrected," said Connolly of the 6.714 at 205.94 mph performance. "It just wasn't a very good run.

"We  had to make a good run on our fourth try and we didn't need a soft
combination.  I knew the car wasn't going anywhere going into second  gear."

Adams hoped to get all misfortune out of the way in one weekend.

"Our motors look pretty fast," he said.  "We'll get  things straightened
out in the engine department and improve our on-track  performance.  Usually,
when things like this happen, one of those things  can cover the other.  But you
can't do that when both of them give you  trouble.

We'll get it straightened out . . . and soon."

-jls