Melanie Troxel Wins O’Reilly Midwest Nationals Third NHRA Victory
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Madison, Ill
May 07, 2007
NHRA
In her opening round of eliminations, she defeated Luigi Novelli with a smooth pass of 4.626 seconds, 322.88 mph as Novelli smoked the tires almost immediately as the starting line tree flashed green.
She had a bit of tussle with Bruce Litton in the quarterfinals when both drivers had problems on their launch, but Troxel rebounded and pedaled her way to the finish line recording an elapsed time of 5.682 seconds, 275.62 mph advancing her to semi-finals to race Larry Dixon.
During the third round pairings, Troxel again struggled a little bit off the starting line from her car’s performance against Dixon, who immediately lost traction giving her a clear path to her 13th final round appearance of her career and second (Phoenix) of 2007.
The money round had her racing against Cory McClenathan, who ironically she raced in her first final round appearance in Dallas in 2000. Although her overall record against McClenathan was 2-5 going into the finals with their last meeting being the Columbus race in 2006, she countered and up the ante improving on her final round record to three wins out of 13 final round appearances pushing her Vietnam Veterans MIA/POW dragster to the finish line running a time of 4.741 seconds at a speed of 274.33 mph to McClenathan’s time of 5.355 seconds, 254.52 mph after he smoked the tires around 300 feet out on the quarter-mile.
“We knew it would take some time to work out the little problems when you switch teams and start out with all new equipment, ” said an excited Troxel. “After a few races, we were still struggling a little bit. It wasn’t that we weren’t running well, we couldn’t catch a break. Today, we weren’t the best car, but it’s nice to come out here and have a weekend where breaks went our way. Richard (Hogan, crew chief) did a good job of getting the car down the track. I think this is just what we needed to energize the team and start moving in the right direction. ”
With the amount of on and off precipitation on Friday causing the NHRA officials to cancel two round of qualifying left the Vietnam Veterans team with a pretty big obstacle to overcome on Saturday, as they were not in the field until their last qualifying pass.
“That added a lot of stress on the team, ” said Troxel. “To come down to two passes struggling with the weather conditions, it’s hard to guarantee you’re going to get in the field. Making it in, in itself, regardless where you qualify is a big relief. It’s even nicer to know we’re getting a handle on our hot weather tune up.
“I think we used up a little bit of our luck today, but I have to say the rest has to go to Richard Hogan and our Morgan Lucas Racing crew enabling the car to go down the track in these warm conditions. The crew had to figure out what they had to do to get the car hooked up. That is what takes—to make sure everyone is having fun out there and I think it will help us go a long way to boosting everybody’s attitude in giving us a head start as we approach the hot summer. ”
She is most proud to give car owner, CEO and Chairman of Lucas Oil Products, Forrest Lucas his first professional win as a car owner.
“We’re working together as a team, ” said Troxel. “All of Morgan Lucas’ guys were over pitching in and helping us getting our car back together, especially after the quarterfinals. Teamwork – That’s what we’ve been really looking for in our two-car operation and hopefully we’re making strides in the right direction. I feel very fortunate to have come on board with the Lucas family to be able to work with them. This is great. The one thing that could have made this better if it had been Morgan and I in the final round and I think we’ll get there this year. ”
With the victory, Troxel catapulted her position from ninth in the NHRA POWERade Countdown to the Championship Top Fuel standings entering the O’Reilly Midwest Nationals, to now moving her to fifth place, only four points away from the fourth position.
“I know it’s still early in the season, but I can tell you it takes a little of the pressure off of us to get a jump on the points, ” said Troxel, who now has earned 392 points after the completion of seven of 23 events. “We’ll keep working on it. ”
The next NHRA National event will be the seventh annual O’Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals at the beautiful Bristol Dragway slated to run in two weeks on May 18 – 20.
