Reading: Doug Herbert final summary

Herbert disappointed with results in Reading

READING, PA, post-race: The 2006 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series has been a tough one for perennial Top 10 driver, Doug Herbert. The 8-time NHRA Top Fuel national event winner and pilot of the Snap-on Tools dragster has been enduring a rough year and it didn't get any better on Sunday when he was defeated in the first round at the 22nd annual Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals.

The weather was cool and damp at Maple Grove Raceway after an overnight rain soaked the facility. The skies cleared early Sunday morning and the NHRA worked diligently to prepare the track for the start of racing at 11 a.m. Herbert entered eliminations from the No. 14 position with a 4.701 at 291.82 mph, after rain limited qualifying to just three sessions. "Dougzilla" was scheduled to square off with Rod Fuller during the first round.

Herbert and Fuller were the second to last pair of dragster to battle it out, with Herbert in the right lane. "Dougzilla" left the starting line first with a better reaction time but the Snap-on dragster had problems near half track and slowed to a 5.095 at 196.39 mph. Fuller advanced to the second round with a 4.582 at 328.46 mph.

"Right now we just don't have our act together," offered Herbert. "We're going to go to Richmond next week and hopefully get things a little more together. Then we'll have a couple of weeks off to work on the Snap-on Tools car and try to get the team prepared to finish the final two races of the season. It's disappointing, but we're going to work as hard as we can until the end of this season and keep looking ahead and making plans to run strong in 2007."

-credit: dhr