Sun, 20 Sep 2009, 09:44 PM Tom Hammonds Confident after Strong Showing at Carolinas Nationals

Courtesy of Kirk Weeks

CONCORD, N.C. -- You certainly couldn't tell by watching Tom Hammonds this weekend at the 2nd annual Carolinas Nationals that the Pro Stock driver was competing in his first national event in more than four months. The driver of the Race for Achievement Chevrolet had one of the quickest and most consistent cars on the strip during three days of racing at zMax Dragway, and Hammonds is confident that the performance can continue next week in Dallas.

"We had a great weekend, there's no doubt about that," Hammonds said. "We've been off for awhile but to come back and run like we did - we were right there with the fastest Pro Stock Cars in the world. It's gratifying. We're not satisfied, though. My goal, as it has been since I first started this sport, is to build a championship team. Hopefully this is a stepping stone to that goal and we'll continue to work during the off- season on our engines, and on our entire program, and there's no reason why we shouldn't continue to improve next year."

Hammonds qualified the Race for Achievement Chevrolet in the No. 8 position with a 6.662 second run at 206.80 mph. His elapsed time in the final session of time trials was the second quickest and earned him two Countdown bonus points.

On race day, Hammonds defeated round-one opponent Rodger Brogdon with a 6.636 e.t. to a 6.642 second run, and in round two he went up against No. 1 qualifier Mike Edwards. In the race against Edwards, the Race for Achievement Chevrolet posted the second-quickest elapsed time of the session at 6.633 seconds, and Hammonds' .985 to 60-foot was the quickest of the round. Hammonds led all the way to the 330-foot marker, but unfortunately, Edwards' Pontiac in the opposite lane posted the best time of the session, a winning 6.620-second run. Edwards went on to win the national event and take over first place in the standings.

"The whole package is coming around," Hammonds said. "I owe a lot to Tomi Laine who did an excellent job in setting up this Race For Achievement Chevrolet, and Eric Luzinski did an excellent job his weekend in selecting gear ratios and transmission ratios. I think we were really messed up all year with our carburetors and Eric came in and did a good job of kind of straightening out that situation, and we ran a lot better than what we did earlier in the season.

"Mike (Edwards) has the best Pro Stock car in the world and to run as close as we ran to him gives us a lot of excitement going into the winter - knowing that if we continue to work as hard as we have these last few months that we've been out, we'll be right there."

Even with the long absence out of the car, Hammonds felt right at home this weekend in the Race for Achievement Chevrolet.

"Getting back in the car and racing felt like playing basketball again," Hammonds said. "I enjoyed competing again and we're going to go to Dallas, do the best that we can there, and then shut it down for the rest of the year and keep working."

The next stop on the tour is the O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas, on Sept. 24 - 27. It is the second race on the six-event NHRA Countdown to 1 for the 2009 Full Throttle Championship.

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