Sonoma: Cory McClenathan final report

Tire Smoke Precursor to Cory Mac's First-round Setback at Sonoma

A loss of traction in the opening round of Sunday's  FRAM Autolite Nationals
sent Cory McClenathan and the Scott Griffin  Motorsports FRAM Top Fuel team
home earlier than planned in their sponsor's  event at Infineon Raceway.

"We were hoping for better results obviously, but the car lost traction and starting smoking the tires," said McClenathan. "I had to pedal it three times, but I couldn't catch (Tony) Schumacher."

The two dragsters left at the same time, but Schumacher's car had no traction trouble and posted a winning time of 4.542 seconds at 327.82 mph to McClenathan's 5.451 at 196.67.

Tony Shortall, in his first race tuning the FRAM dragster with help from consultant Rahn Tobler, said he was "trying to keep a simpler tune-up and slow down the clutch (for the oft-times tricky track conditions). The good news is the motor is making good power. Basically, I need to learn the car a little better. We are learning what we need to do on every run and I think it shows promise."

This event ended the streak of six straight races.

-credit: sgm