At the rain-plagued O Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas, just east of Houston, native Australian and fan-favorite “Aussie Dave” Grubnic made his second semi-final finish of the young 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series season Sunday. Mother Nature wiped out all of Saturday s qualifying action and tried her best to rain on the Sunday parade of final eliminations, but after a three-hour, soggy delay, the racing on the HRP quarter-mile finally heated up.
Grubnic, the No. 13 qualifier and driver of the black and blue Zantrex-3 Top Fuel dragster, easily vanquished Morgan Lucas in the first stanza of eliminations, 4.620 seconds, 317.42 to 10.135 sec., 93.56 mph. In the second round of competition, Grubnic and his opponent Brandon Bernstein gave the huge crowd of faithful NHRA fans a little extra added value for their tickets with a great side-by-side thriller. Grubnic s dragster lost traction near half-track and it looked as if Bernstein was going to cruise down the strip for an easy win, but after Bernstein s car also suffered problems, Grubnic was able to get his car to regain traction and then he blasted by Bernstein to cross the finish line first, 4.918 sec., 296.83 mph to 5.216 sec., 187.52 mph. Grubnic s opponent in the semifinals was Joe Hartley. The two wily nitro pilots again provided an exciting race, but this time it was side by side to the stripe with Hartley running his best lap of the weekend, 4.623 sec., 316.15 mp h, to take the win and deny Grubnic, 4.661 sec., 307.72 mph, his first trip to the final round in 2007. Grubnic also reached the semifinals at the season-opening NHRA national event in Pomona, Calif.
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