Pomona: Martino Thursday qualifying notes

Tom Martino opened the 2002 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing season in fine fashion, using his first official run to post a solid 6.849-second elapsed time with a top speed of 201.40 mph. This was enough to place the Jesel Motorsports Grand Am 5th after the first of four qualifying sessions for the K&N Filters NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, CA.

"It's a good, solid run right out of the box, which is just how you like to start. Even with the strong runs we had in testing, it's always a relief to make that first official run a good one. We now have a good baseline to tune from, and we can make some adjustments based on that to make our Jesel Motorsports Grand Am even better. We've made it one of our goals to qualify as close to the top as we can at every race, and this is a good step in that direction."

-jm-