Our Jasper Engines & Transmissions GTO qualified in the No. 5 position at 6.84 seconds at 202.99
mph, the quickest run we have made this season.
After NHRA's Safety Safari dried the Silver Dollar raceway, we paired up against No. 20 qualifier
and red-hot racer Bill Thigpen. Bill had an excellent .007 of-a-second reaction time and our day,
season, ended with a disappointing -.007 red-light reaction time!
This was a tough pill to swallow; we qualified great, but just seem to have the Championship monkey
on our back. I don't know what it is. We'll leave here with our heads held high and go into the off
season knowing we did just the same thing that has produced championships for our team.
Sometimes it goes this way for no reason, we raced really well, parts breakage was at a minimal,
and we racers call it luck or lack of, most of the time.
In the last three races our results were this; Columbus, Ohio - We lost in Final Round, (Mike
Coughlin Won) Louisville, Ky. - Race Mike Coughlin again, Loose by .00016 of-a-second! That is 16
Ten-Thousandths! (Mike Coughlin was Runner-Up) Reynolds, Ga. - Red-Light .007 of-a-second! (Mike
Coughlin Won Event & the Championship) So we will congratulate great friend Mike Coughlin, and the
entire Jegs family for their awesome championship run and we will pass the Championship to Team
Jegs for 2009.
All we can do is look at the future and move forward do better next year. But there really isn't
any point in hitting our heads and getting frustrated about it, because we have been very lucky and
good as well.
2010 will be very exciting; NHRA will be introducing Top-Sportsman and Top-Dragster at select NHRA
Full-Throttle National Events! I will follow-up with the schedule as soon as it is released. These
would be great events to showcase our sponsors involvement and hospitality.
Jasper Motorsports / Mitchell Smith Racing partners with high-quality and high-performance
companies:
Laser Electric, Valvoline Oil, Jegs, Reher-Morrison Racing Engines, SpeedTech Nitrous, RacePak,
Hoosier Racing Tire, Fel-Pro Gaskets, DART Machinery, Automatic Trans Design, Autolite Spark Plugs,
Mallory Ignition, Comp Cams, VP-Racing Fuel, Aeromotive Fuel Systems, Lamb Components, Moroso,
Diamond Pistons, Donovan Blocks, Lindy's Downtown Grocery, Jasper Engines & Transmissions.
