Sun, May 17, 07:13 PM Etchells Excerpts

Courtesy of Jon Knapp Mopar Parts Nationals

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. - Using consecutive 4.91 second passes, Chuck Etchells powered his Kendall Oil/MaMa Rosa's Pizza/Superwinch Camaro Z28 Funny Car from the sixth qualifying position into the semi-finals of today's Mopar Parts Nationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, where he was matched up against long-time rival John Force. Leaving with almost identical reaction times, Etchells battled to maintain traction, finally shutting off early.

"After running the 4.97 yesterday (in qualifying) in the heat of the day, we thought we had a pretty good tune-up for today, even though we knew it would cool off. This morning we put in about the same tune-up, but since the air was cooler, we ran 4.91. In the second round, it murdered the motor about a thousand foot, or it would have been a lot quicker and faster pass than it ended up, since it slowed down to 308.21. We knew we would have to run a .90 flat or better to beat Force, we were positive of that. Looking at our computer right now, it definitely was on a run that would have beaten him. It left so hard, I was surprised it smoked the tires, but yet they dried up and took off, where normally it will keep on going, and it didn't. When it smoked them a second time, I pedaled it, and it yanked the nose in the air, trying to do a wheelstand, and I pedaled it again, but he was gone, so I shut it off. Even so, it was a very productive weekend for the Kendall Oil/MaMa Rosa's Pizza/Superwinch Camaro Racing team. This was a great way to bounce back after Dallas, and we had a lot of sponsors and customers from my business Union Engravers. The car ran real well, and we're optimistic. It's too bad John will pick up some points on us, but it's still early, and we'll keep working on it."

Qualifying:
   6th, 4.975 second E.T., 305.49 miles per hour.

Eliminations:

First Round: Chuck Etchells (.476 r.t., 4.912 E.T., 311.77 mph) 
defeated Dean Skuza (.482 r.t., 9.274, 90.50 mph).

Second Round:  Chuck Etchells (.541 r.t., 4.914 E.T., 308.21 mph) 
defeated Tony Pedregon (.482 r.t., 5.443 E.T., 217.21 mph)

Semi-Finals:  John Force (.504 r.t., 4.880 E.T., 318.92 mph) defeated 
Chuck Etchells (.503 r.t., 6.621 E.T., 133.18 mph)

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