Joliet: Greg Anderson final report

Anderson's Learning Process Continues with Quarterfinal Finish in Joliet

After two days of countless delays caused by persistent rain, race day at the United Association Route 66 Nationals dawned with clear blue skies and cooler temperatures, conditions that were tailor-made for the naturally-aspirated Pro Stock Cars. As a result, many racers, including Greg Anderson and the Summit Racing team, were able to significantly better their performance from qualifying.

Starting ninth, Anderson's day got off to a good start as he was the beneficiary of a red-light start by opponent Johnny Gray, punctuating his win with a 6.642-second, 208.26 mph pass. This set the stage for a second-round encounter with defending Pro Stock champion, and No. 1 qualifier Mike Edwards. Although Anderson was able to once again better his performance, stepping up to a 6.634-second, 208.68 mph run, his opponent used the quickest run of the weekend at 6.603 seconds to advance to the next round.

"Our Summit Racing Pontiacs received a little help from Mother Nature today, with Jason's (teammate Line) car really responding," said Anderson. "However, you have to have both the car and the engine right to run fast, and my car started the day a little off in low gear. We made a few adjustments to compensate, but could have used one more run to get it to perform as well as Jason's.

"We still need to get faster. Although today showed us that we're making sufficient power, we need to pinpoint how to duplicate this performance in hot and humid weather. We also have to start qualifying higher in the field, so that we don't have to face people like Mike (Edwards) in the early rounds. If the race is completed today, we're going to stay here tomorrow and test. We're going through a learning process, and we need to accelerate the pace."

-source: kb racing