It’s been an all or nothing season for Melanie Troxel, driver of the Vietnam Veterans POW/MIA Top Fuel dragster in 2007. She has two final round appearances along with one victory (St. Louis) placing her in the sixth position in the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel standings, but out of those first eight races, she has yielded five first round finishes. Now she’s looking forward to going back to Route 66 Raceway and the 10th annual running of the Torco Racing Fuels Nationals, where she was the runner-up last year. All she needs is a smooth road to travel so she can get back into victory lane in Chicagoland.
“The track in Chicago is beautiful, ” said Troxel, a three time winner in the Top Fuel division. “It’s one of the nicest facilities we visit throughout the year. We’re looking forward to getting up there, especially now with our sponsor, Torco Racing Fuels supporting the event.
“We didn’t get the results we wanted out of the last race and now we’re really looking forward to going some rounds this weekend. We need to solidify our position in the Countdown and I think Chicago is where we can do that. We didn’t start off the weekend with a good run in Topeka and being one run short during qualifying didn’t help either. So we’re looking forward to getting out there with some good solid qualifying runs and really laying some decent numbers down, so we can be ready for Sunday. ”
The Route 66 Raceway has long been noted as a speedrome with the quickest pass ever in NHRA history recorded there and whether it’s the track or the surroundings—that place has something special to offer. It’s definitely one on Troxel’s favorites.
“There are several different factors that go into making the tracks that we see the great qualifying numbers on, ” she said. “I think obviously, Route 66 has a great racing surface. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly, but certainly the sea level conditions, cool weather are going to help that out, too. Hopefully, we’ll get a mixture of those conditions this weekend. ”
The start of the 10th annual Torco Racing Fuels Nationals begins at Route 66 Raceway on Friday, June 8 with two qualifying sessions starting at 4:30 p. m. (CDT) with a second session at 8:00 p. m. Saturday’s time trials start at 1:00 p. m. for the nitro classes followed by a second session at 4:30 p. m. The race starts promptly at 11 a. m. on Sunday, June 10.
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