NHRA

Gainesville: Team Castellana Friday notes

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-Like what happened at times last season, every time Mike Castellana would take a large stride forward it seemed he would fall back two steps. This kind of frustration reared its ugly head again for the supermarket chain ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

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GAINESVILLE, Fla.-Like what happened at times last season, every time Mike Castellana would take a large stride forward it seemed he would fall back two steps. This kind of frustration reared its ugly head again for the supermarket chain owner from Westbury, N.Y. During testing at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Tex., Castellana was cooking in his nitrous-injected Western beef '57 Chevy when he produced the second quickest pro-mod lap with an elapsed time of 6.282 seconds at 223.99. The performance showed teaming with Pro Mod stalwart Shannon Jenkins appeared promising. Something happened between Texas and yesterday's first round of the Mac Tools NHRA Gatornationals. During the afternoon pass, Castellana got out of the groove and started fishtailing so he decided to abort the qualifying attempt. The result was a quarter-mile pass of 9.403 seconds and 105.34 mph.

The second run in the evening was only slightly better as Castellana turned in a pass of 8.390 seconds and 1212.83 mph. Worse yet, Castellana ended the day in 15th position and has only today's passes left to leap into the top eight for tomorrow's final eliminations. Yet, Castellana is confident of his ability to climb out of the hole. "The track feels excellent. We just need to get our combination dialed into what it wants," says Castellana, who will most likely huddle with Jenkins to solve the problem. "We have yet to run what we feel the car is capable, but I have faith that it is going to happen this weekend. We'll refresh everything and comeback tomorrow and try to nail it down." Castellana has the wherewithal to do it and would like to come away from tomorrow's final eliminations with something to build on.

In other team Castellana news, teammate and engine tuner Shannon Jenkins currently resides in the fifth spot with a 6.343/221.38 lap.

Castellana will look to have the gremlins worked out by the time the third session of Pro Modified exhibitions roll around tomorrow afternoon at 1:30. The final session is slated for 4:30 PM

-HC

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