Dennis Taylor's proud debut with K&N Engineering emblazoned on the sides of his potent Top Alcohol
Funny Car was loaded with questions and concern. Friday's initial qualifying attempts at Pacific
Raceways just outside Seattle were delayed by nine hours of inclement weather. Most crew chiefs
will admit that developing a tune-up after rain showers is worse than running on a hot and greasy
surface. There's never a guarantee of how much horsepower a "green" race track will hold and
therefore, the tune-up is always based on a certain degree of speculation. When the time came,
Taylor and Company rolled to the starting line in only the second pair of cars to test the unknown
track surface when the clock was heading towards 7:00pm.
As things turned out, the fine balance of too much or not enough reared its ugly head
and Dennis overpowered the track, resulting in an aborted run. With 12 Funny Cars making attempts,
six of them suffered a similar fate. Since all racers were delayed by bad weather, that was the
only session conducted on Friday.
Saturday also found bad weather delaying the proceedings and officials decided to run
only one more qualifier, which added to the concerns of drivers and tuners alike. Unfortunately,
Taylor's aborted run on Friday landed him in the first pair of cars to test yet another unknown
track surface. The plan was to back off on the power and hope it was strong enough to transition
past the critical 330-foot mark without spinning or shaking the tires. It was not to be. Dennis
fought through the launch and ever important one-two-shift, but the tires didn't stick. He was
forced to lift off the throttle. Taylor noted, "Two things contributed to this outcome and one of
them was our limited schedule this year. We're focused on a much better showing next time out for
all our marketing partners."
