NHRA
Memphis: Melanie Troxel Saturday summary
TROXEL QUALIFIES IN TOP HALF OF FIELD IN MEMPHIS MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Aug. 20, 2005) - Melanie Troxel qualified No. 7 for Sunday's O'Reilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals, the first time she's qualified in the top half of the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series ...
Published: Aug 21, 2005, 8:47 PM
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TROXEL QUALIFIES IN TOP HALF OF FIELD IN MEMPHIS
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Aug. 20, 2005) - Melanie Troxel qualified No. 7 for Sunday's O'Reilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals, the first time she's qualified in the top half of the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Top Fuel field since she debuted the Skull Gear/Torco Race Fuels dragster five races ago in Denver.
The heat at Memphis Motorsports Park is a stark contrast to last week's conditions in Brainerd, Minn. "It's been a real tricky track to try and get the cars down," she said referring to the near 100-degree temperatures here. "It's so hot and the track temperatures are so high that it's tough trying to figure out how to back these cars down enough to just go down the track."
Troxel ran an elapsed-time of 4.875 seconds at 253.61 mph in Friday's first qualifying session, and posted her best run in the second session, a 4.675/312.78. Saturday's first round resulted in a 12.059/64.35 mph after smoking the tires, and the final qualifying session produced a 4.737/282.66.
"We came out and ran decent numbers our first two passes," said the Colorado native. "We spun the tires and dropped a hole (cylinder) on the first one, so I lifted. I took it to the finish line on the second pass, which gave us the No. 7 qualifying spot. They weren't bad numbers, definitely something to work with on Saturday."
Qualifying sessions were held beginning at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, and at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. "The passes were earlier on Saturday, which made it tougher to step up and run a big number," she continued. "The good thing is it was more like race conditions. We went up for the first pass and overshot it a little bit and smoked the tires, but at least then we knew where the limit of the track was. We came back for the last session, made it down the track and lifted just a little bit early. It's still trying to spin the tires a little bit.
"We definitely have a tune-up for the Skull Gear/Torco Race Fuels dragster to go down the track tomorrow."
Troxel faces Doug Kalitta in the first round of Sunday's eliminations.
-dsr
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