Gainesville: Tom Bradford Friday summary

Bradford in Third

They say the eagle flies on Friday, and Tom Bradford's Thunder Eagle Racing Buell did just that today in Gainesville, posting the third quickest time in Pro Stock Motorcycle qualifying for the Gatornationals.

Bradford's first pass off the truck was a promising 7.10 in the right lane, good enough for 7th at the end of the round.

"When we got back to the trailer, we saw that we'd left some on the table," said Bradford, who set about tuning the bike with longtime partners Rob Schopf and Jim Schneider. The results (in the left lane) were stellar, as Bradford posted the best 60 foot (1.086) and high MPH (193.88) of the round on his career-best pass.

"We were the second quickest of the round behind Antron (Brown, the #1 qualifier)," reported Bradford, a 5-time AHDRA national champion. "It was a really, really nice pass. I just couldn't be happier.

"There's still a little left on the table, but I'm not gonna get greedy. We're gonna go out there and look to repeat. I'm not looking to run a 6, we just want to go out there and be consistent and have a good bike on raceday."

-tbr