Tony Pedregon piloted the Q Horsepower Funny Car into the quarterfinal round yesterday at the Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park and secured the top seed in the NHRA POWERade Countdown to the Championship’s next playoff segment, the Countdown to One.
“It was a big achievement to make the top four and to be seeded in the top spot in the Countdown to One,” said Pedregon, the 2003 NHRA Nitro Funny Car Champion. “We came out of Richmond in the position we wanted to keep and we have a slight lead over the other teams in the final four, but the Q Horsepower team knows we need to work even harder to maintain the lead. We’ll be testing at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to give ourselves the best chance possible at winning the Championship.”
Pedregon is in search of his second NHRA Championship and knows what it takes to reach this pinnacle in motorsports. Now that the Funny Car field has been narrowed to the top four cars, Pedregon will be looking for every precious championship point.
“The Countdown to the Championship may come down to qualifying points, so having a ten point lead heading into Las Vegas is definitely to our advantage,” said Pedregon. “We are excited about our chances at the next two races, Las Vegas and Pomona. They are among my favorite drag strips.”
During Saturday’s qualifying session, his 4.837 E.T. pass qualified him in the top half of the ladder for the 14th time this season and earned him the 6th spot for Sunday’s final elimination rounds.
Pedregon notched his 400th career Funny Car round-win with his opening elimination round victory over Scott Kalitta and trails only John Force in career Funny Car round-wins among active drivers. Pedregon raced to a 4.896/309.98 mph to beat Kalitta’s 5.044/303.09 mph.
In the quarterfinal round, Pedregon was matched up against Tim Wilkerson. Both cars launched together, but it was Wilkerson who was first to the stripe by inches with a 4.917 to Pedregon’s 4.928. Pedregon’s time was the second quickest of the quarterfinal round.
Pedregon and his Q Horsepower team head for the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals, Oct. 25-28. He will compete against Gary Scelzi, Robert Hight and Ron Capps in the next playoff phase, the Countdown to One, a two-race playoff to determine the POWERade Series Funny Car World Champion. The 2007 NHRA POWERade champion will be crowned at the 43rd annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals.
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