Post by daj on Jun 29, 2005 14:27:52 GMT -5
Arend goes out early at St. Louis smoke-fest
ST. LOUIS, Sunday: Jeff Arend's day ended early at the 9th annual Sears Craftsman NHRA Nationals at Gateway International Raceway near downtown St. Louis. The driver of the CMKXtreme Machine Monte Carlo Funny Car was a victim of tire smoke during the first round, which featured one tire-smoking battle after another in both fuel classes.
The first round of eliminations began late Sunday afternoon under very hot conditions. In an effort to cool the racing surface the NHRA employed the use of a local fire truck to water down the track before the race got underway.
Arend entered the first round in the No. 13 position and faced Cruz Pedregon for the fourth time this season. The Canadian native has left the starting line first on his opponent over seventy percent of the time this season, which is the best in the class, and he continued that trend against Pedregon. At the flash of green Arend took the advantage with a .080 to .118 reaction time, but the CMKXtreme Machine began smoking the tires early in the run. Arend pedaled the throttle several times but was unable to regain traction.
"I don't think any team out here went into the first round confident of a win with the track conditions being the way they were," said Arend. "We tried to soften it up and get the car to go from A to B but we just haven't made enough laps in these kind of conditions in order to get a handle on that tune-up. We made some pretty big changes compared to what we normally do but the CMKXtreme Machine just didn't quite respond. As long as we keep learning we'll be less likely to make the same mistake later on."
Arend described his run against Pedregon following the first round. "I had a good light, I had almost four-hundredths on him on the tree, but the car started smoking the tires about 100-feet out. I pedaled it three times but he was driving away so there was no use in blowing it up. He made a pretty good run and we got beat today but we're going to Denver and that's one of Paul Smith's favorite tracks. We ran really well there last year so we're looking forward to heading out west. We're going into the second part of the season now and I'd take a repeat of the first part, but I think the CMKXtreme Machine team will do better."
ST. LOUIS, Sunday: Jeff Arend's day ended early at the 9th annual Sears Craftsman NHRA Nationals at Gateway International Raceway near downtown St. Louis. The driver of the CMKXtreme Machine Monte Carlo Funny Car was a victim of tire smoke during the first round, which featured one tire-smoking battle after another in both fuel classes.
The first round of eliminations began late Sunday afternoon under very hot conditions. In an effort to cool the racing surface the NHRA employed the use of a local fire truck to water down the track before the race got underway.
Arend entered the first round in the No. 13 position and faced Cruz Pedregon for the fourth time this season. The Canadian native has left the starting line first on his opponent over seventy percent of the time this season, which is the best in the class, and he continued that trend against Pedregon. At the flash of green Arend took the advantage with a .080 to .118 reaction time, but the CMKXtreme Machine began smoking the tires early in the run. Arend pedaled the throttle several times but was unable to regain traction.
"I don't think any team out here went into the first round confident of a win with the track conditions being the way they were," said Arend. "We tried to soften it up and get the car to go from A to B but we just haven't made enough laps in these kind of conditions in order to get a handle on that tune-up. We made some pretty big changes compared to what we normally do but the CMKXtreme Machine just didn't quite respond. As long as we keep learning we'll be less likely to make the same mistake later on."
Arend described his run against Pedregon following the first round. "I had a good light, I had almost four-hundredths on him on the tree, but the car started smoking the tires about 100-feet out. I pedaled it three times but he was driving away so there was no use in blowing it up. He made a pretty good run and we got beat today but we're going to Denver and that's one of Paul Smith's favorite tracks. We ran really well there last year so we're looking forward to heading out west. We're going into the second part of the season now and I'd take a repeat of the first part, but I think the CMKXtreme Machine team will do better."