Sun, 19 Jun 2011, 01:46 PM Personett Takes No. 1 Qualifying Position and First-Round Win

Courtesy of NHRA Communications Photo copyright 2011 Auto Imagery, Inc. In NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Series at Ford NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals

BRISTOL, Tenn. --

Leah Pruett-LeDuc

Top qualifier Brad Personett raced to a first-round victory Saturday during eliminations for the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series at the Ford NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals presented by Tri-Cities Area Ford Dealers.

  Personett, who claimed his first No. 1 qualifying position of the season and second of his career, powered his turbocharged ProCare Rx ’68 Camaro to a run of 6.068 seconds at 248.43 mph to defeat Steve Matusek’s late model Ford Mustang, which trailed with a 6.164 at 243.50.  

“The (rain) delay made the race track really, really good,” said Personett, whose top qualifying performance was 5.961 at 252.80. “I underestimated the race track, and I didn't tune the car up like I needed to.”  

Three of Personett’s R2B2 Racing teammates – Roger Burgess, Melanie Troxel and Leah Pruett-LeDuc – also scored opening round wins.  

However team owner Burgess won’t get to continue in eliminations. After driving his ProCare Rx ’68 Firebird to the first-round win over Kenny Lang, his car went out of control and crashed at the top end of the track. Burgess was extracted from the damaged car and was checked and released by NHRA emergency services officials.  

"I can't believe I'm getting this much attention for a Round 1 win, but it was on a holeshot so I guess I understand," Burgess joked. "Seriously, I'm OK. I have a severely bruised (left) heel that I'm icing at the moment. We don't think anything's broken in there but we're going to monitor the situation tonight.  The Safety Safari was there immediately and we signaled back and forth to each other that I was OK. They eventually had to cut me out of there and the car is totaled. I will say that all the safety equipment worked exactly like it should and John (Medlen, VP of Research and Development at R2B2 Racing) was pleased with how well the cockpit looked. I'm very lucky.”

  Series points leader Khalid Balooshi posted the quickest run of the weekend in his nitrous-injected Speedtech ’68 Camaro. His performance of 5.960 seconds at 239.31 mph earned him a first round win over veteran driver Jay Payne.

  Other first round winners included Danny Rowe, Troy Coughlin and Mike Janis.

  Second round matchups include: Personett vs. Rowe; Coughlin vs. Balooshi; Troxel vs. Janis; and Pruett-LeDuc vs. Burgess.

  Eliminations will continue Sunday at approximately 3:30 p.m.

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