Dave Northrop noticed a definite performance boost from Kenny Koretsky's Nitro Fish Pontiac GXP
during Friday's two qualifying runs for Sunday's NHRA Virginia Nationals at Virginia Motorsports
Park in Dinwiddie, near Richmond.
With horsepower from Tom Hammonds motors, Northrop stopped the timer in 6.665 seconds at 205.41 mph
on his second attempt after opening with a 6.698 at 204.50. That put him 13th going into
Saturday's two final sessions.
"The last run was a good one," Northrop said. "We had good numbers at 60 and 330 feet, and that
certainly helped. Now Eddie and Tom -- who is servicing the motors -- are looking for ways to
improve our times on Saturday.
"They got good data from the runs and thought we should've gone quicker and faster. They saw some
areas that can be improved, so they're going in a different direction. We are all looking forward
our two runs on Saturday."
Meanwhile, Tony Pedregon drove the Nitro Fish Impala to an elapsed time of 4.4132 seconds at 301.67
mph in the second session to claim the provisional 11th Funny Car berth.
Pedregon's crew was unable to repair the damage to the Nitro Fish Impala body that was blown off
the chassis Monday during eliminations in Memphis, but they did find time to re-wrap Pedregon's
Herzog body in the bright Nitro Fish colors in the little time between events.
"Tony's guys did a great job of putting everything on the car." Koretsky said. "It looks great."
