Seattle: Tony Pedregon final summary

Tony Pedregon to the Second Round in Seattle 'Q' Racing Improves on Consistency KENT, Wash. (July 24, 2005) -- Tony Pedregon and his Q Racing Nitro Funny Car, drove to the second round of eliminations falling to Whit Bazemore during today's NHRA ...

Tony Pedregon to the Second Round in Seattle
'Q' Racing Improves on Consistency

KENT, Wash. (July 24, 2005) -- Tony Pedregon and his Q Racing Nitro Funny Car, drove to the second round of eliminations falling to Whit Bazemore during today's NHRA national event at Pacific Raceways. After smoking the tires, Pedregon ran a 5.259-second elapsed time at 223.73 mph to Bazemore's effort of 4.883 seconds at 313.37 mph.

During the first pass of the day, both Pedregon and his contender, Tim Wilkerson, smoked the tires early in the run. Pedregon promptly recovered to click off a 5.168-second elapsed time at 270.05 mph, beating Wilkerson to the finish line.

'We had the car set up to run the same way we did during qualifying," explained Pedregon. "We though we could adjust the horsepower but it ended being too strong for today's conditions. I feel we need to 'tame the horses' a little bit in the Q car.

"Dickie (Venables, crew chief) and the rest of the team think we have a good car for Sonoma," Pedregon added. "We're getting adjusted to a new chassis, it is a learning process as we adapt to a new set of variables. The 'Q' team is definitely looking forward the last one of this three-race Western swing."