NHRA
Gainesville: Mike Ashley Saturday summary
Ashley Disappointed but Optimistic after DNQ at Gatornationals GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 17, 2007) - On this St. Patrick's Day, 2007, the luck of the Irish was not with The Kid from Long Island. Mike Ashley, New York resident and driver of the ...
Edited: Mar 19, 2007, 2:54 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Ashley Disappointed but Optimistic after DNQ at Gatornationals
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 17, 2007) - On this St. Patrick's Day, 2007, the luck of the Irish was not with The Kid from Long Island. Mike Ashley, New York resident and driver of the Torco Race Fuels, Inc. Dodge Charger, found himself just three-thousandths of a second outside of the top 16 cars at the ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.
Delivering a 4.85 second pass in his final qualifying attempt and jumping momentarily to the 14th spot, Ashley stood at the end of the racetrack and watched as he was progressively bumped further and further down the ladder by the cars that followed him. When the qualifying ended, Ashley sat number 17, just behind Del Worsham.
Although disappointed by not qualifying, Ashley's optimism remains strong and unscathed.
"Of course I'm disappointed, probably most because I want to run the very best for my sponsor, Evan Knoll," Ashley said. "Especially this weekend as we unveiled the new "Fuel Doctor" paint scheme honoring him, I wanted to do well, but it just didn't happen.
"Evan knows, though, that this is an incredibly tough sport, and that we give it our all every time we go to the line," he said.
"We got behind early in the weekend, and we just couldn't get back on course to get a baseline for our runs. We struggled with the track and our setup, and, we came out just a fraction short of making the field,” he said.
Ashley said he knows, however, that just being able to race against the very best nitro Funny Cars in the land is a privilege, and he takes his role as a driver and team owner very seriously, if not humbly.
"It's really an honor to be able to race for all of these amazing fans and for a sponsor like Torco. Now we'll re-group and get ready for Houston. It's a long season, and even though we want to win them all, I'm realistic. This was just one race out of 23, and I'm still very confident that I'll be able to give Evan a Wally very soon," Ashley said.
Ashley and the entire Gotham City Racing team head next to Houston, Texas for the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals presented by Pennzoil, March 30-April 1.
-credit: www.mikeashley.com.
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 Mike Ashley Gainesville Friday summary
Next article Gainesville: Morgan Lucas Saturday summary
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Del Worsham
Good, bad and ugly dominate Gatornationals memories
NHRA
NHRA
Good, bad and ugly dominate Gatornationals memories
Courtney Force, Leah Pritchett lead nitro Spring Training
NHRA
NHRA
Courtney Force, Leah Pritchett lead nitro Spring Training
Testing times for NHRA’s elite
NHRA
NHRA
Testing times for NHRA’s elite
Latest news
Cleetus McFarland set to compete full-time for 2027 ARCA championship
ARCA
ARCA ARCA 1 h
Cleetus McFarland set to compete full-time for 2027 ARCA championship
Why McLaren gave team order to Oscar Piastri in F1 US GP
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
4 h
Why McLaren gave team order to Oscar Piastri in F1 US GP
Winners and losers from a frantic NASCAR Cup race at Talladega
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Talladega II
4 h
Winners and losers from a frantic NASCAR Cup race at Talladega
Herta endorses IndyCar’s international return with Barcelona while marveling at Palou’s dominance
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 5 h
Herta endorses IndyCar’s international return with Barcelona while marveling at Palou’s dominance
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