Houston Etchells Sun. Note

ETCHELLS EXCERPTS Final Results from NHRA Pennzoil Nationals

ETCHELLS ADVANCES TO SECOND ROUND IN HOUSTON

Qualifying Results: 5th, 4.939 second E.T., 308.00-mph top speed Elimination Results: Round One: Chuck Etchells (.542 rt., 4.950 E.T., 307.58 mph) defeated Frank Pedregon (.481 rt., 5.117 E.T., 302.62 mph) Round Two: Tony Pedregon (.551 rt., 4.899 E.T., 313.69 mph) defeated Chuck Etchells (.508 rt., 5.661 E.T., 182.18 mph)

Chuck Etchells advanced to the second round of today's Pennzoil Nationals at Houston Raceway Park. After first defeating Frank Pedregon with an impressive 4.950 run, Etchells met Tony Pedregon. Lane choice came down to the tiebreaker of top speed, with the nod going to Etchells and his 307.62 mile-per-hour top speed. Although he gained a slight advantage at the start, Etchells' mount dropped a cyllinder, which ended his hopes for a second win this season.

"Our first run (against Frank Pedregon), was a good one -- our Kendall Oil/MaMa Rosa's Pizza/Superwinch Camaro Z28 ran perfectly straight, put up a good number and din't hurt a part. We had a problem starting the car in our warm-up for the second round, however, which we traced to the ignition. We're pretty sure that's what caused us to lose a cylinder in the run against Tony, which you can't afford to do if you want to win. On the positive side, we qualified well, and won another round. Our car was strong, and if we keep this up, we'll stay in the hunt!"

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