Greg Anderson had good reason to be cautiously optimistic entering Sunday's final eliminations of
the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio. He entered the day as the No. 1 qualifier
for the 72nd time in his career, and his Summit Racing GXP seemed to have regained his
class-leading form after two weeks of preparation that included two long days of testing in 90
degree temperatures. He carried this strong performance into race day recording the second
quickest pass of the opening stanza at 6.681-seconds to defeat rookie Ryan Ondrejko.
This set the stage for a second-round encounter with Greg Stanfield, a veteran driver who is well
known for his starting line prowess, which he used to gain the advantage on Anderson. Although the
three-time cham pion was able to record a solid 6.705-second elapsed time with a top speed of
206.10, it fell shy of overtaking his opponent at the finish line, putting a premature end to his
day.
Although naturally displeased with the day's results Anderson preferred instead to focus on the
many positives from the weekend, including his teammate Jason Line's stirring win in his Summit
Racing Pontiac (which, ironically, is the car Anderson campaigned in 2008).
"I definitely had my downs today, but this is a team sport, and I have a great KB Racing team,"
said Anderson. "It's no secret that I'm struggling a little bit right now at the starting line,
but I have a great Summit Racing Pontiac that qualified No. 1 here in Norwalk, and Jason also has a
great car that he is driving the wheels off of. He has not had one race when he hasn't driven
well. He's in the game right now, and I need to learn from him how to get in the state of mind
that he's in, and I will.
"We have two fast hot rods now, and made a lot of ground up this week. We can run with Mike
Edwards and Allen Johnson, which we haven't been able to do for a few weeks. We're a lot closer to
the top of the pack, which is where we believe we belong, and we need to learn how to start winning
races again. There's one thing that we have to fix, and that's me, but seeing Jason perform as
well as he is gives me great confidence. I just have to get back to that. All the ingredients are
there - it's up to me to figure out how to put them together, and I will. Still, I'm very happy
for Summit, for Ken (team owner Black), and for Jason and the team - it's been a goo d day."
Established in 1968, Summit Racing Equipment is the leading high performance parts and accessories
company. Summit Racing offers the largest selection, lowest prices, and best customer service in
the high performance industry via catalogs, Internet, and Retail Super Stores. The company is
headquartered in Tallmadge, Ohio with retail locations in Tallmadge, Ohio; Sparks, Nevada; and
McDonough, Georgia.
