Seattle: Melanie Troxel final summary

TROXEL CONTINUES TO CLIMB IN PERFORMANCE

KENT, Wash. (July 24, 2005) - Melanie Troxel continues to take the all-new Skull Gear/Torco Race Fuels Top Fuel dragster she signed up to drive just two weeks ago higher and higher in performance. The Denver native posted her quickest elapsed time of these last two races in first round of eliminations today for the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals, a 4.612-second ET, despite losing a cylinder at the finish.

This run at 316.23 mph did not, however, beat her opponent Doug Kalitta's 4.566/325.14, and No. 12 qualifier Troxel was out of the competition.

"We're definitely making progress," she said. "The 4.61 was the best run we've made so far, and certainly the best run of the weekend. I think we were expecting to run somewhere in the .50s. I dropped a cylinder out somewhere past half-track, so that killed us a little bit on the ET. We would have struggled to be faster than Kalitta's .56. We're making progress. We're not quite there yet, but I think we're getting real close."

"I could see Kalitta out somewhere near half-track and then when it dropped the cylinder he started pulling away. But I could see him until at least half-track, so it was a good close race. We hoped that we would have had a little bit more for him, but like I said, we're making progress."

Next up is the Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., July 29-31.