Post by daj on May 17, 2005 8:48:02 GMT -5
Arend on the short end of a close quarter-mile battle at the Southern Nationals
Courtesy of Bill Walters
CMKXtreme Racing
ATLANTA, post-race: CMKXtreme Machine Funny Car driver Jeff Arend may not be from the south but he put up a fight during the first round of the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals that would have made the entire confederate army proud.
Arend, who entered Sunday’s eliminations in the No. 11 qualifying position, faced Funny Car rookie Robert Hight in round one of eliminations. After a four hour rain delay racing finally began. Hight had the performance advantage going into the race but that didn’t mean much to Arend. When the light turned green, Arend bolted off the starting line with a .043, the best reaction time of the first round, and almost a tenth of a second quicker than Hight’s reaction.
Arend had the lead past the one-thousand-foot mark when Hight drove by him to take away the victory, running low elapsed time and top speed of the first round. Hight took the win by approximately .0172 seconds, about eight feet.
“I though we won because I never saw him,” said Arend afterward. “Then when I saw the television people go over to him I was just hoping I didn’t red light. We learned some things about the CMKXtreme Machine here in Atlanta and overall it was a good weekend, we just got outrun in a close first round drag race.”
“I want to make sure to thank Ol’ Country Smokehouse for feeding our hard working crew all weekend. They did a great job and their food was fantastic.”
Courtesy of Bill Walters
CMKXtreme Racing
ATLANTA, post-race: CMKXtreme Machine Funny Car driver Jeff Arend may not be from the south but he put up a fight during the first round of the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals that would have made the entire confederate army proud.
Arend, who entered Sunday’s eliminations in the No. 11 qualifying position, faced Funny Car rookie Robert Hight in round one of eliminations. After a four hour rain delay racing finally began. Hight had the performance advantage going into the race but that didn’t mean much to Arend. When the light turned green, Arend bolted off the starting line with a .043, the best reaction time of the first round, and almost a tenth of a second quicker than Hight’s reaction.
Arend had the lead past the one-thousand-foot mark when Hight drove by him to take away the victory, running low elapsed time and top speed of the first round. Hight took the win by approximately .0172 seconds, about eight feet.
“I though we won because I never saw him,” said Arend afterward. “Then when I saw the television people go over to him I was just hoping I didn’t red light. We learned some things about the CMKXtreme Machine here in Atlanta and overall it was a good weekend, we just got outrun in a close first round drag race.”
“I want to make sure to thank Ol’ Country Smokehouse for feeding our hard working crew all weekend. They did a great job and their food was fantastic.”