NHRA

Noble: Joe Fuentes wrap up

NOBLE, Okla. - Rookie Federal Mogul Dragster driver Joe Fuentes was unable to compete in eliminations of the final Division 4 Federal Mogul Drag Racing Series event of the year at Thunder Valley Raceway Park in Noble, Oklahoma, due to a damaged ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

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NOBLE, Okla. - Rookie Federal Mogul Dragster driver Joe Fuentes was unable to compete in eliminations of the final Division 4 Federal Mogul Drag Racing Series event of the year at Thunder Valley Raceway Park in Noble, Oklahoma, due to a damaged crankshaft.

Fuentes, owner of a large air conditioning company in Austin, Texas, qualified No. 7 with a career best elapsed time of 5.738 at 201.83 mph in Saturday morning's first qualifying session. Then in the last qualifying session, Fuentes went into heavy tireshake, and eventually aborted the run after getting on and off the throttle several times. Fuentes believes that is when the crankshaft was hurt. Nevertheless, Fuentes feels that the weekend met his goal: gaining valuable experience and knowledge.

"Even though we didn't get to race and hurt the crank, this weekend was a really good learning experience for us," Fuentes said. "Tom Conway came over and gave us some help this weekend, so between the help Tom has given us and our new crew chief Ora Vasquez has given us, we are really moving in the right direction."

"On that 5.73 pass, the throttle cable came off at around 1000' ft," added Fuentes. "Tom said that it should have been a high or mid 5.50. I think we are finally getting close to where we need to be performance wise."

Fuentes' next event will be the O'Reilly Fall Nationals presented by Castrol Syntec at the famed Texas Motorplex near Dallas, Texas. Fuentes hopes to pick up his first round win in competition and more.

"We are really pumped about going to Dallas now after this weekend," Fuentes commented. "Ora will be there, and the car is running really well, so we are better off than we have ever been."

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