Jeff Wilson race summary

Parts failure leads to early exit for Wilson.

TOPEKA, Kan. - NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster driver Jeff Wilson had a disappointing outing during this past weekend's Division 5 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series opener at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kan. The former Division 3 Champ had his hopes for victory thwarted when parts failure during the burnout of his first round contest with Shelly Howard cost him the race.

Wilson's parts breakage problems in the Associated Builders & Contractors/Starcon dragster were not limited to the first round, however. The Winfield, Mo., native had parts breakage problems in qualifying that ultimately caused him to fall off his normal pace to a 5.655 second elapsed time at 250.97 mph, to qualify him fifth in the eight car show.

"We broke on the first qualifying pass," said Wilson. "We just wanted to make the show on the second pass, and did. Then we tried to get after it a little bit, and went the wrong way on the tune-up. Then, in the first round, once again, parts failure got us again, and that was the end of our weekend."

"When you have a new car and a new combination, you have to make laps to make it work," Wilson added. "Right now we are looking to possibly stay over the Monday after the Topeka Nationals, and try to get a handle on this car."

Wilson's next event will be the second race in the Division 3 series, at the famed Indianapolis Raceway Park. There Wilson hopes to return his ABC/Starcon team to the form that won him the Division 3 Championship in 2000.

"We sent the parts off to be analyzed," explained Wilson. "We want to see if we can find the problem, so we don't have the problem again. We don't typically have that kind of failure; it's kind of rare for us. I think it was just a fluke deal, and just what they call 'racing luck,' and we haven't had any of it so far."

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