ENGLISHTOWN, N.J., May 1, 2004 - Two rounds of qualifying were completed today for the NHRA Sport Compact Spring Nationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. Lisa Kubo's Ecotec-powered Saturn Ion continued to beat up on the Pro FWD record book, running the quickest lap in the history of the sport at 7.863 seconds.
Nelson Hoyos's Ecotec-powered Chevy Cavalier ran strong during the second round of time trials posting an elapsed time of 8.156 seconds at 180.67 mph. Hoyos is currently qualified in the No. 2 position.
Marty Ladwig's Pontiac Sunfire is qualified in the No. 2 position in HOT ROD after running 8.335 seconds at 172.14 mph. Gary Gardella leads the field in a Honda with an 8.086 e.t. at 176.44 mph.
GM Racing - NHRA Sport Compact Spring Nationals
ENGLISHTOWN, N.J., May 1, 2004 - Two rounds of qualifying were completed today for the NHRA Sport Compact Spring Nationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. Lisa Kubo's Ecotec-powered Saturn Ion continued to beat up on the Pro FWD record book, running the quickest lap in the history of the sport at 7.863 seconds.
"Once a barrier is broken you have to start working on your next goal and remain consistent," said Kubo. "In third gear, the wind kind of pushed me out of the groove so I didn't feel the run was that good. Tomorrow we're just hoping the weather holds out and we can keep the car straight."
With one round of time trials remaining on Sunday, Kubo is looking to earn low qualifying honors for the third time this season.
"Our Ecotec engines are making plenty of power and now we want to maintain a happy medium where we can get down the racetrack without spinning the tires. I love this car and I love this engine. We knew just by looking at the background of the engine, and the work GM engineers had put into this project that the Ecotec was going to be good. You can't top the research and development GM has put into this engine and that's why we were confident it would be good."
Nelson Hoyos's Ecotec-powered Chevy Cavalier ran strong during the second round of time trials posting an elapsed time of 8.156 seconds at 180.67 mph. Hoyos is currently qualified in the No. 2 position.
"This final session went really well," said Hoyos. "We found a few gremlins in the car that hurt us during the first run and got that worked out. The car really left hard, spun the tires a little bit, but it was a huge improvement over the first round. This Chevy Cavalier ran strong out the back door so that will give us good, solid base for tomorrow and we can tune from there.
"It's still a brand-new racecar and there are just some small items we need to sort through. It's not anyone's fault, it's just the newness of the racecar we're working through. We recovered great tonight and you can see it with the time and the speed we were able to post. The testing we did earlier in the week also helped us. We were having some problems with the fuel delivery system in West Palm Beach and that's why we were down in mph there. Our top speed tonight shows that whatever we did in testing worked. If we can get back the seven or eight mph we need this Chevy Cavalier will run in the 7.80s without any issues."
Marty Ladwig's Pontiac Sunfire is qualified in the No. 2 position in HOT ROD after running 8.335 seconds at 172.14 mph. Gary Gardella leads the field in a Honda with an 8.086 e.t. at 176.44 mph.
"We made a decent lap this morning," said Ladwig. "The engine was running a little rich so we tried to tune on that to clean it up for tonight. We'll change engines tonight and then go back to the same setup we had at West Palm Beach. Hopefully that will put us back to where we need to be tomorrow."
In Pro RWD, Matt Hartford's twin-turbo Chevy Cavalier made its quickest run of the season with a 7.172 e.t. at 167.47 mph, and is qualified in the No. 5 position.
"At about 600 hundred feet I saw a big ball of fire come up from under the hood," said Hartford. "It was still pulling so I stuck it in fifth gear with the attitude that if it's broken, I might as well put the car in the show. I went across the line, reached for the halon and stopped as quick as I could by the fire and safety guys. I tell you what, hats off to those guys. They had the front end off the car before I was even out. Tonight we'll fix what's wrong."
Television coverage of the NHRA Sport Compact Spring Nationals can be seen on ESPN2 on Sunday, May 9, starting at 12:00 p.m. Eastern.
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