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Post by Franko10 ™ on Nov 13, 2004 12:40:03 GMT -5
9/25/2004 : Arend keeps qualifying streak alive and races against Force in the first round on Sunday
DALLAS, qualifying: CMKXtreme Machine Funny Car driver Jeff Arend ran his qualifying streak to 12 races on Saturday at the 19th annual O’Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals in Texas. It was the 14th time this season that Arend has qualified the CMKXtreme Machine Corvette for an NHRA national event. The 41-year-old Canadian native grabbed the No. 16 position and will face No. 1 qualifier, John Force, during the first round of eliminations on Sunday.
It took a trip to Texas for the teams on the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing tour to find enough dry weather to finally go racing. All four rounds of professional qualifying were completed without interruption at the O’Reilly Fall Nationals.
The CMKXtreme Machine Funny Car suffered mechanical problems following the burnout during the opening qualifying session Friday afternoon. Arend’s motor went silent as he was backing up and the team quickly returned to the pit area to diagnose the problem and prepare for the evening qualifying session.
Arend returned for the Friday night qualifying session and took his first shot at the all-concrete Texas Motorplex quarter-mile. The CMKXtreme Machine posted a 4.995 at 306.67 mph and Arend finished the first day of qualifying in the No. 14 position. The CMKX team would have two more chances to improve their qualifying position Saturday afternoon.
Racing resumed on Saturday at the O’Reilly Fall Nationals with temperatures in the low 80-degree range and a heavy cloud cover obscuring the sun for most of the day. Although Arend improved on his second qualifying attempt with a 4.986 at 301.00 mph, he dropped two positions on the ladder to the No. 16 spot. The CMKXtreme team had one chance remaining to move off of the bump spot and secure a better position in the field for Sunday’s eliminations.
Arend improved again on his final qualifying effort. The former NHRA Funny Car national event champion rocketed to a 4.932 at 312.93 mph and briefly held the No. 13 spot, but fell to 16th by the end of the session. Arend will square off against John Force during the first round of eliminations for the third time this season.
“Missing the first qualifying session hurt us a lot,” said Arend at the end of qualifying. “The Texas Motorplex is one of the best tracks that we’ve run on this year. We set it up to run hard during the Friday night session but it ended up slipping the clutch because the track was so good the tires didn’t spin at all. That kind of put us behind the eight ball. We came out today and tried to step on it a little bit at a time and improve on each run,” Arend added. “The CMKX car is making plenty of power, we’re just trying to dial the clutch in. On our last qualifying run everything started coming together and the 4.93 was just what we were looking for, so we’re pretty happy.”<br>
When asked about the daunting task of racing against John Force in the first round Arend replied, “I think we’ll have something for Force tomorrow. He’s the guy I like to race the most because if you lose you’re supposed to, and if you beat him it’s an upset.”
DALLAS, qualifying: CMKXtreme Machine Funny Car driver Jeff Arend ran his qualifying streak to 12 races on Saturday at the 19th annual O’Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals in Texas. It was the 14th time this season that Arend has qualified the CMKXtreme Machine Corvette for an NHRA national event. The 41-year-old Canadian native grabbed the No. 16 position and will face No. 1 qualifier, John Force, during the first round of eliminations on Sunday.
It took a trip to Texas for the teams on the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing tour to find enough dry weather to finally go racing. All four rounds of professional qualifying were completed without interruption at the O’Reilly Fall Nationals.
The CMKXtreme Machine Funny Car suffered mechanical problems following the burnout during the opening qualifying session Friday afternoon. Arend’s motor went silent as he was backing up and the team quickly returned to the pit area to diagnose the problem and prepare for the evening qualifying session.
Arend returned for the Friday night qualifying session and took his first shot at the all-concrete Texas Motorplex quarter-mile. The CMKXtreme Machine posted a 4.995 at 306.67 mph and Arend finished the first day of qualifying in the No. 14 position. The CMKX team would have two more chances to improve their qualifying position Saturday afternoon.
Racing resumed on Saturday at the O’Reilly Fall Nationals with temperatures in the low 80-degree range and a heavy cloud cover obscuring the sun for most of the day. Although Arend improved on his second qualifying attempt with a 4.986 at 301.00 mph, he dropped two positions on the ladder to the No. 16 spot. The CMKXtreme team had one chance remaining to move off of the bump spot and secure a better position in the field for Sunday’s eliminations.
Arend improved again on his final qualifying effort. The former NHRA Funny Car national event champion rocketed to a 4.932 at 312.93 mph and briefly held the No. 13 spot, but fell to 16th by the end of the session. Arend will square off against John Force during the first round of eliminations for the third time this season.
“Missing the first qualifying session hurt us a lot,” said Arend at the end of qualifying. “The Texas Motorplex is one of the best tracks that we’ve run on this year. We set it up to run hard during the Friday night session but it ended up slipping the clutch because the track was so good the tires didn’t spin at all. That kind of put us behind the eight ball. We came out today and tried to step on it a little bit at a time and improve on each run,” Arend added. “The CMKX car is making plenty of power, we’re just trying to dial the clutch in. On our last qualifying run everything started coming together and the 4.93 was just what we were looking for, so we’re pretty happy.”<br>
When asked about the daunting task of racing against John Force in the first round Arend replied, “I think we’ll have something for Force tomorrow. He’s the guy I like to race the most because if you lose you’re supposed to, and if you beat him it’s an upset.”
