Richmond: Tom Hammonds Saturday notes

TEAM HAMMONDS FAILED TO QUALIFY WITH NEW CHASSIS

(PETERSBURG, Va., Oct. 11, 2008) - - Team Hammonds failed to qualify with their new chassis today at the third annual Virginia NHRA Nationals.

The team had two runs to make it into the 16-car qualifying field to compete in tomorrow's elimination competition. Running a best elapsed time of 6.629 seconds (207.24 mph) in the fourth session and 6.632 seconds (207.59 mph) in the third session, the No. 20 Race for Achievement Chevy Cobalt's new chassis did not run as well as they expected.

"It is just a new car, a new car deal. We have no notes. We are starting over from scratch with no notes. I think the car is fine. We just have not hit it yet," said Kenny Tom, Team Hammonds crew chief.

Tom qualifies that they still have a lot to learn about the new chassis in order to be competitive. Though the car seems it will prove to be very fast, the crew will need to start from scratch by going baseline. The upside is the new chassis allows the changes they made throughout the day to register on the computer graph, which did not happen with their previously flawed chassis. He anticipates their next steps will need to be to figure out the data from this weekend's race so that the crew can make correct decisions in order to run at the speeds he feels the THE engine is capable of running in future races.

"I am disappointed we did not qualify," said Tom Hammonds, owner/driver, "and we know our car is capable of a lot more."

The team is now looking forward to the Las Vegas race at the end of the month, which they preparing for better results.

-credit: th