NHRA

Sonoma: Melanie Troxel Saturday summary

TROXEL COLLECTS NO. 10 IN SONOMA QUALIFYING SONOMA, Calif. (July 29, 2006) - Melanie Troxel drove the Skull Shine/Knoll Gas-Torco Race Fuels Top Fuel dragster into the No. 10 position during qualifying for the Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals at ...

Published: Jul 30, 2006, 10:04 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

TROXEL COLLECTS NO. 10 IN SONOMA QUALIFYING

SONOMA, Calif. (July 29, 2006) - Melanie Troxel drove the Skull Shine/Knoll Gas-Torco Race Fuels Top Fuel dragster into the No. 10 position during qualifying for the Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway.

Troxel clocked a 4.608-second pass at 318.54 mph in Saturday's third session to earn that spot. Her other passes produced a strong 4.640-second lap at 322.65 mph in the opening session (good for No. 2 at the time), a 10.638/72.97, in which she shut off early and coasted to the finish, and a final tire-smoking pass of 9.262/89.64.

"We laid down a good number with the first pass out," she said, "and we were looking forward to going out in the night session and staying in the top three or four spots. Unfortunately, we missed the setup just a little bit and smoked the tires. That moved us all the way back to No. 9.

"We had an opportunity this morning, with the cool air and the marine layer of clouds, to improve and move up. And, we did. We moved up to No. 8.

"The last session wasn't quite what we were looking for, as far as moving up in the field. But, Richard (Hogan, crew chief) feels like he learned something from it. It's better to have learned something today, than tomorrow.

"We were trying a few different things on that last run, and some worked and some didn't. We know what we don't want to do tomorrow. But, we've got some good experience in conditions that will be similar to Sunday's.

"It would be great to get a first-round win, and get that off our back," she said, referring to her first-round losses in the last two races. "I know the Western Swing has been tough for us, so it would be nice to get some rounds and use some of our experience from previous races."

Troxel faces Hillary Will in first round of eliminations on Sunday.

-dsr

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Spa: Hour 22 standings

Next article USA: San Jose race one notes

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Fermin Aldeguer defends himself after Francesco Bagnaia crash: “It wasn’t a crazy move”

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

20 min

Fermin Aldeguer defends himself after Francesco Bagnaia crash: “It wasn’t a crazy move”

George Russell has lost 90 points to Max Verstappen in F1 2026 runner-up battle

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

1 h

George Russell has lost 90 points to Max Verstappen in F1 2026 runner-up battle

Aprilia: “Marco Bezzecchi couldn’t avoid the collision; Marc Marquez moved in on him"

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

2 h

Aprilia: “Marco Bezzecchi couldn’t avoid the collision; Marc Marquez moved in on him"

How the Racing Bulls pendulum is swinging back towards undeniable Liam Lawson

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

2 h

How the Racing Bulls pendulum is swinging back towards undeniable Liam Lawson

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts