Heading into Sunday's final eliminations of the Virginia NHRA Nationals in Richmond, VA, Summit
Racing Pontiac racer Jason Line knew he had his work cut out for him. Starting from the fourth
position, he knew he would need to maintain the forward progress from the last two races in order
to solidify his cha nces for this year's championship.
Things went according to plan in the first two rounds, as Line opened with a career-best 6.534
second elapsed time and top speed of 211.96 mph to eliminate rookie Ryan Ondrejko. He maintained
his winning pace in the second round, combining a .022 reaction time with a 6.548-second, 211.59
mph pass to defeat fellow playoff contender Greg Stanfield.
This set the stage for a crucial semifinal encounter against current points leader Mike Edwards,
who had reset the Pro Stock elapsed time national record earlier in the day. Running without lane
choice, Line knew he would need every advantage in order to advance to his tenth final of the
season. Unfortunately, the contest was over at the starting line as Line left 15 thousandths of a
second early, handing the automatic win to his rival. To make matter s worse, Edwards suffered
severe tire shake and was forced to shut off early.
"Although our Summit Racing Pontiac had been running close to Mike for the last two days, I still
felt like I needed to get a jump on him at the line," said Line. "Unfortunately, I didn't do a
very good job, and it cost us. I'm pretty upset right now, but I'll get over it in a few days and
move on.
"Although the championship may now be out of our reach, we are certainly not giving up, because we
can still build on what has been a pretty good season. The last time I checked, we still have a
race in Las Vegas and Pomona, and the way Greg's and my cars have been running, we have as good a
shot as any to win them both. That's why weE2re staying here to test tomorrow - we want to be at
our absolute best when we head west."
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. For more information, please visit http://www.summitracing.com
