After running a 7.482 in Friday's Q1, his XTreme Rebellion/RumBum Buell began to show engine problems during the second qualifying round. Gann and his team were confident they could get the problems fixed before Sunday's eliminations; unfortunately, they never had the chance as the North Carolina native spent all day Saturday in the hospital.

"I was so sick Saturday," he said. "Got the flu or something and just had to go to the hospital, so I spent all day Saturday there and came back and was ready to race Sunday, but it just didn't happen."

Scheduled to start Sunday's eliminations from P14, Gann never had the opportunity to win his sixth round of the year as his bike caught on fire at the starting line.

"It just caught on fire," said the four-time NHRA Nationals winner. "There was a short in the harness and it hit the carbon fiber, that's very flammable and it just lit up."

"My bike was running good, too. We were so ready to go, but then it just caught on fire and ended the day. We're working on the bike, getting it fixed up and we're taking a new motor to Sonoma, and it's real fast."

Gann and the rest of the NHRA Full Throttle Series Pro Stock Motorcycle class qualify for Sunday's eliminations for the Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals Friday at 4 p.m. PST and again at 6:30 p.m. Saturday's qualifying for the bikes is scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m. with the second round starting at 2:15 p.m. Sunday's eliminations begin at 11 a.m.

For more information about the Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway, visit them on the Web at InfineonRaceway.com. Event qualifying can be seen on ESPN2 Saturday at 6:30 p.m. EST. Eliminations air at 9 p.m. EST Sunday and again Wednesday at 3 a.m. The race can be heard via live streaming Sunday at NHRA.com.

Fans can follow Shawn Gann at Twitter.com/ShawnGann or on his page on Facebook.

SHAWN GANN FAST FACTS:
* Gann is a four-time Nationals event winner in the NHRA Full Throttle Series Pro Stock Motorcycle class: Joliet, Denver (2004); Englishtown (2003); Las Vegas (2001)
* Gann has earned five career top qualifier awards: Las Vegas (2006); Englishtown, Madison (2003); Houston, Pomona (2002)
* Gann's career round wins record is 117-115, including 12 final round appearances
* Gann round win record in 2009 is 5-8
* Gann did not attempt this event last year
* Gann's highest finish in the year-end points standings in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class is third (2003) on the strength of one win, one runner-up, and a final round win record of 21-14
* Won the Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle at the U.S. Nationals at Indy (2001)
* Gann's career-best speed is 193.65 (Houston, 2006) and career-best ET is 6.952 (Reading, 2006)

Courtesy of HighSideMedia