Post by daj on Jun 26, 2005 11:40:46 GMT -5
Arend on the short end of first round pedal-fest at Englishtown
ENGLISHTOWN, post-race: CMKXtreme Machine Funny Car driver Jeff Arend was upset in the opening round of eliminations on Sunday at the 36th annual K & N Filters NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in New Jersey.
Arend entered Sunday's eliminations in the No. 2 position, the best qualifying effort of his career. The Canadian native's 4.792 at 322.19 mph during Friday's evening qualifying session were also career-best numbers for the 42-year-old driver.
The CMKXtreme Machine squared off against Whit Bazemore in round one. Arend left the starting line first with a .071 to .093 reaction time, but both cars lost traction early in the run. Arend was on and off the throttle several times in an attempt to get his Monte Carlo to hook back up but Bazemore beat him to the finish line with a 5.947 at 227.61 mph to Arend's 6.555 at 151.87 mph.
"We were running strong and consistent all weekend," said Arend, "unfortunately we got beat in the first round. Looking at the computer after the run confirmed that we made the right tuning call but for whatever reason at about 1.8-seconds the CMKXtreme Machine just came unhooked and lost traction. We didn't find anything wrong after the run and I don't think we would have done anything differently. We actually backed it down a little bit because the air was so tremendous today."
Arend described his run against Bazemore. "I left the starting line first and didn't see Bazemore. Usually it will shake before it smoke the tires but this time the car drove right into tire smoke. I pedaled it once, I pedaled it twice, and when I hit it the third time I saw his car going by me and I figured I'd lift since there was no use in blowing it up." Arend added, "It's not worth it to blow up a $45,000 body to win a $3,000 round at this point in the season, especially when we've got to race again next weekend in St. Louis."
ENGLISHTOWN, post-race: CMKXtreme Machine Funny Car driver Jeff Arend was upset in the opening round of eliminations on Sunday at the 36th annual K & N Filters NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in New Jersey.
Arend entered Sunday's eliminations in the No. 2 position, the best qualifying effort of his career. The Canadian native's 4.792 at 322.19 mph during Friday's evening qualifying session were also career-best numbers for the 42-year-old driver.
The CMKXtreme Machine squared off against Whit Bazemore in round one. Arend left the starting line first with a .071 to .093 reaction time, but both cars lost traction early in the run. Arend was on and off the throttle several times in an attempt to get his Monte Carlo to hook back up but Bazemore beat him to the finish line with a 5.947 at 227.61 mph to Arend's 6.555 at 151.87 mph.
"We were running strong and consistent all weekend," said Arend, "unfortunately we got beat in the first round. Looking at the computer after the run confirmed that we made the right tuning call but for whatever reason at about 1.8-seconds the CMKXtreme Machine just came unhooked and lost traction. We didn't find anything wrong after the run and I don't think we would have done anything differently. We actually backed it down a little bit because the air was so tremendous today."
Arend described his run against Bazemore. "I left the starting line first and didn't see Bazemore. Usually it will shake before it smoke the tires but this time the car drove right into tire smoke. I pedaled it once, I pedaled it twice, and when I hit it the third time I saw his car going by me and I figured I'd lift since there was no use in blowing it up." Arend added, "It's not worth it to blow up a $45,000 body to win a $3,000 round at this point in the season, especially when we've got to race again next weekend in St. Louis."