Post by daj on Apr 18, 2005 22:05:23 GMT -5
Arend remains consistent but his racing luck continues to elude him on race day
Courtesy of Bill Walters
CMKXtreme Racing
LAS VEGAS, Sunday: CMKXtreme Machine Funny Car driver Jeff Arend continues to run well this season but his racing luck during eliminations has been a little harder to come by. Arend enjoyed his best qualifying effort of the year at the 6th annual NHRA Summit Racing.com Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but the team’s hard work fell short on Sunday with a close first round loss.
Arend entered the first round of Sunday’s eliminations from the top half of the 16-car qualifying ladder in the No. 8 position on the strength of his 4.885 at 319.67 mph. That gave Arend lane choice over his opponent, No. 9 qualifier Cruz Pedregon. This was the second time that the CMKXtreme Machine Funny Car driver has raced against Pedregon this season. Arend lost their first match up at the NHRA season-opener in Pomona in February and the native Canadian was looking to even the score in Las Vegas.
Sunday was the hottest day of a beautiful weekend at the SummitRacing.com Nationals. The racing conditions during the first round of eliminations provided a serious challenge for CMKXtreme Machine crew chief Paul Smith, who has become a master of negotiating hot, sticky race tracks over the years.
Arend and Pedregon were the final pair of fuel cars to run in round one. Arend left the starting line first and the CMKXtreme Machine ran a 5.021 at 306.88 mph but Pedregon beat him to the finish line by less than five-hundredth’s of a second with a 4.979 at 302.48 mph.
“Since we were the last pair of fuel cars to run during the first round we saw a lot of cars going up in smoke in front of us,” Arend explained. “We had lane choice and we just wanted to get the CMKXtreme Machine to go from A to B, but we were looking for something better than the 5.02 we ran. Cruz Pedregon did an excellent job stepping up to the plate and running that 4.97 after not getting down the track at all on Saturday. We just didn’t have any racing luck this weekend. Sometimes you’ve got to be lucky and sometimes you’ve got to be good. The CMKXtreme Machine team is definitely getting much more consistent. We’re qualifying in the middle of the pack, getting down the track in the first round, keeping up with the reaction time average and its just a matter of time before we start going some rounds.”
Courtesy of Bill Walters
CMKXtreme Racing
LAS VEGAS, Sunday: CMKXtreme Machine Funny Car driver Jeff Arend continues to run well this season but his racing luck during eliminations has been a little harder to come by. Arend enjoyed his best qualifying effort of the year at the 6th annual NHRA Summit Racing.com Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but the team’s hard work fell short on Sunday with a close first round loss.
Arend entered the first round of Sunday’s eliminations from the top half of the 16-car qualifying ladder in the No. 8 position on the strength of his 4.885 at 319.67 mph. That gave Arend lane choice over his opponent, No. 9 qualifier Cruz Pedregon. This was the second time that the CMKXtreme Machine Funny Car driver has raced against Pedregon this season. Arend lost their first match up at the NHRA season-opener in Pomona in February and the native Canadian was looking to even the score in Las Vegas.
Sunday was the hottest day of a beautiful weekend at the SummitRacing.com Nationals. The racing conditions during the first round of eliminations provided a serious challenge for CMKXtreme Machine crew chief Paul Smith, who has become a master of negotiating hot, sticky race tracks over the years.
Arend and Pedregon were the final pair of fuel cars to run in round one. Arend left the starting line first and the CMKXtreme Machine ran a 5.021 at 306.88 mph but Pedregon beat him to the finish line by less than five-hundredth’s of a second with a 4.979 at 302.48 mph.
“Since we were the last pair of fuel cars to run during the first round we saw a lot of cars going up in smoke in front of us,” Arend explained. “We had lane choice and we just wanted to get the CMKXtreme Machine to go from A to B, but we were looking for something better than the 5.02 we ran. Cruz Pedregon did an excellent job stepping up to the plate and running that 4.97 after not getting down the track at all on Saturday. We just didn’t have any racing luck this weekend. Sometimes you’ve got to be lucky and sometimes you’ve got to be good. The CMKXtreme Machine team is definitely getting much more consistent. We’re qualifying in the middle of the pack, getting down the track in the first round, keeping up with the reaction time average and its just a matter of time before we start going some rounds.”