Melanie Troxel’s string of great runs on the quarter-mile came to an abrupt ending in the first round of the O’Reilly Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex.
Her opening round match up with Cory McClenathan saw Troxel launched off the starting line first (. 077 – 142) and was marching away until her Vietnam Veterans POW/MIA Top Fuel dragster suddenly lost traction along with McClenathan causing both dragster to skate and dart about. Then it became pedaling contest to see who would reach the finish line first.
Cory Mac became the primary driver crossing the stripe in 5.147 seconds, 256.94 mph to Troxel’s hard effort of 5.819 seconds, 224.25 mph.
After Troxel won her second event of the season last weekend in Memphis and fourth of her career, this first round loss was a bit of let-down, especially after qualifying in the No. 2 position with her time of 4.545 seconds, 318.47 mph.
She maintains her place of ninth in the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel standings with 992 points after the 20th event of the season.
The next NHRA National event will be the Torco Racing Fuels Nationals at the Virginia Motorsports Park on October 5 – 7 in close proximity to Richmond.
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