Las Vegas: Tom Hammonds Friday notes

HAMMONDS OPENS WITH A POSITIVE FIRST DAY OF COMPETITION IN LAS VEGAS

(LAS VEGAS, Apr. 11, 2008) - - Tom Hammonds went into competition hoping to shudder mechanical woes with his Chevy Cobalt at the Ninth Annual SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas. Shudder the mechanical woes he did for the second qualifying round, but was haunted by them in the first qualifying round.

Hammonds shut the car off half way through the course due to excessive tire shake in the first qualifying run, placing him in 21st place in the 22 driver field. The starting line set-up was inadvertently set 3000 rpm higher than what was desired off the starting line, which was not anticipated for the run.

"The rpm problem really hurt the first run, but we were able to regroup and make a decent second run," explains Hammonds.

Adjustments to the rpm setting were made for the second run. The team had no hard data to use for the adjustments, but relied on experience for success. It was a successful run with him registering an elapsed time of 6.778 (203.19 mph) moving him up 10 places to the 11th spot, making it into the 12-man qualifying field.

Competition will resume tomorrow with qualifying sessions three and four, where the team will assess the air and track, make adjustments to the carburetor, and take a look at the tires to ensure good runs.

The first pro stock qualifying session begins at 12:00 p.m. PDT.

-credit: thr