Wet weather continues to follow Dave Northrop around the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. Rain
Satuday afternoon Englishtown, N.J., forced NHRA officials to cancel the fourth Pro Stock
qualifying run, dousing Northrop's chance of claiming a top 16 starting position for Sunday's
United Association SuperNationals.
"We've been pounded by the weather," said the disappointed driver from Perkasie, Pa., after Kenny
Koretsky's Nitro Wear/ISC Racers Tape/ISC Salesmaster Corp. Pontiac GXP came within
seven-thousandths of a second of the coveted berth. "Rain has hurt us quite a bit already this
year, robbing us of testing time and qualifying runs. That hurts us because we are racing
part-time.
"We made a decent run (Saturday) and the car kept getting better each time it went down the track.
Eddie (Guarnaccia, crew chief) made a lot of changes and we felt we would run better on our last
try, but we were punched out by the weather. It's frustrating . . . but what can you do?"
The Pontiac GXP got quicker on each quarter-mile lap down Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, opening
with a 6.702-second effort and improving to 6.687. And then came Saturday's 6.674 that was
tantalizingly close to the needed 6.667.
The team's next event -- hopefully without rain -- is at Norwalk, Ohio, June 26-28.
Other Nitro Fish News . . .
Funny Car driver Tony Pedregon, who is driving a very bright Nitro Fish paint scheme on his Impala
this weekend, qualified third (4.14 seconds at 285.11 mph) and squares off against Cory Lee (No.
14, 6.140).
Pro Stock Motorcycle driver Matt Smith was 10th (7.065 at 181.23) on the Don Schumacher Racing
Suzuki and his first-round foe is Michael Phillips (7th, 7.042 at 191.35).
