The most recent victory for the team comes in the Hot Rod category and belongs to Pittsburgh native, Pat Forster after a rather interesting chain of events during race number two this past weekend at US 131 in Martin, Michigan. Add on top of that, it being only his fourth event driving the Elrod Racing Hot Rod Monza.

Forster has been wheeling dragsters for Elrod Racing in both the Quick Rod and Top Dragster classes for many years. As a matter of fact, 2009 makes his first year competing in a door car in well over ten years.

While most racers were able to take advantage of the single time run before Sunday's eliminations, the first of Forster's odd day started when he was shut off prior to the pass due to leaking brake fluid caused by a broken driver's side front caliper.

"I ended up not having front brakes for the whole race," he chuckled. "That caused me to have to do dragster style burnouts seeing as how my line lock obviously didn't work."

While the first obstacle couldn't slow Forster down as he made his way through the field, including taking out the likes of Rudy Matthews on his way to the final, what happened on the way to the lanes just before that round could have; from a mechanical standpoint if not at least a mental one.

"Right before the final we heard a small knock in the motor. We weren't really sure what happened, but when we pulled the hood off we found a quarter-sized hole in one valve cover," he explained.

Forster gives a lot of credit to his longtime teammate, Tony Elrod, for the pep talk that he attributes to keeping him clam during what could have been for some racers, a tense round. "He came up to me right before the round and said 'Alright, you're going to get in the car, you're going to drive it and you can still win this race. Just focus on that.' I don't really remember what else he said to me at that point, but for whatever reason those words just clicked with me. I got my focus back and it became just like any other round."

"What I was really hoping for was that he would go red," Forster smiled as he spoke of his final round opponent Nick Karas. "I knew that the motor didn't sound bad enough to notice, so I could run the car though if I had to."

Drive it is exactly what Forster had to do. He admits that his "dead-on" run in the final was a little bit on the lucky side. And what driver doesn't need a little bit of that on race day. "Nick was down there driving right along beside me and he was doing a great job. To be honest, we were both just trying to figure out what the other was going to do and we both ripped it about two or three times before we crossed the line. Fortunately I was just a couple thou in front of him."

Make that three thousandths, or seven inches, in front and a dead on 10.908 pass for Forster---even with a "broken" car.

"I just can't thank Dave and the entire Elrod family for all of their support and for welcoming me to the team," he humbly added. "Obviously that Hot Rod car is a great car and I wouldn't have been able to do what I did without that car, without Dave, Tony & Jake. It's just such a huge honor to be driving for them and all of our sponsors. Sunoco, Bazell Race Fuels, Abruzzi Transmissions and FayetteGolfCarCo.com, they are some of the finest companies around. I couldn't be prouder to help carry the banner for them and take them to where they belong, the winner's circle."

Looking for the same results from your race car? All you have to do is run the proven combination of products from the following fine partners of Dave Elrod Racing!

Sunoco, Bazell Race Fuels, Abruzzi Transmissions, FayetteGolfCarCo.com, Moser Engineering, , Hoosier Racing Tire, Milodon Inc., Quick Fuel Technologies, TCI Automotive, PAR Performance.

For more information on DER visit - http://www.daveelrodracing.com

Courtesy of Kathy Fisher