Dave Grubnic, driver of the nitro-fueled, 330-mph, black and electric blue-flamed Zantrex-3 Top Fuel dragster, is eyeing this weekend’s, July 27-29, annual running of the Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., as the turning point of the Zantrex-3 team’s 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series season.
“We really need a win this weekend in Sonoma, ” Grubnic, a 44-year old resident of Ennis, Mont., said. “We’ve been up and down this year with our car’s consistency, but we’ve managed to stay up there in the points. A win this weekend for our Zantrex-3 team would be huge.
“Our car is right on the edge of being a race-in and race-out winner right now. Hopefully we’ll get that little extra bit of consistency this weekend in Sonoma to get us over that edge and start a year-end charge. ”
Grubnic holds the track record for speed at Infineon Raceway, 331.36 mph – July 2006. He was the Top Fuel title runner-up in Sonoma in 2004 and in 2001.
This season the NHRA instituted the new Countdown to the Championship points system. Only the top eight in POWERade points after the first 17 national events will be allowed to vie for the season championship. This weekend’s event in Sonoma is the 15th of the season.
Grubnic is currently 8th in POWERade championship points. He is 51 points ahead of 9th place.
In early 2004, Grubnic was hired to drive for Kalitta Motorsports. Since joining Team Kalitta, Grubnic has posted consecutive top-ten POWERade championship points finishes. In the fall of 2004, he won the lucrative and coveted Budweiser Shootout in Las Vegas, becoming only the fourth driver in the special event’s history to win its $100,000 prize in his first attempt. Grubnic picked up an emotional first NHRA national event win in May, 2005 in Topeka, Kans., to become the first non-native North American to win a Top Fuel trophy. He has one other event victory to date, the 2006 running of the famed Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.
The Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals begins Friday, July 27, for the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes with one qualifying session at 4:30 p. m. (PT), and then another qualifying session at 8:00 p. m. Two more qualifying sessions follow on Saturday at 12:30 p. m. and 2:45 p. m. The top sixteen qualified cars will race Sunday in final eliminations beginning at noon.
All times and dates subject to change.
The Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals is the 15th of 23 national events in the 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.
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