TOPEKA – Morgan Lucas made it to the quarterfinals of the O’Reilly Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka before bowing out against Hillary Will in one of the closest races of the day.
In his first round matchup against ‘Hot Rod’ Fuller, Lucas, who qualified in the No. 14 slot with a time of 4.728 seconds, 283.37 mph, needed a good solid lap and received it with an elapsed time of 4.749 seconds, 305.98 mph to Fuller’s pass of 4.856 seconds, 261.98 mph, advancing the 24-year old driver into the quarterfinals to meet Will.
Lucas reacted first (.067 - .087) in that quarterfinals match up sustaining a slight lead over her, but suddenly his Lucas Oil dragster began developing a situation with his engine losing power and the same occurred for Will with both spinning their tires. As the pair approached the finish line, she just barely edged Lucas at the finish line by the thin margin of .003-thousandths of a second after running comparable times of 4.757 seconds, 292.58 mph to 4.780 seconds, 278.52 mph.
“That was such a close drag race,” said Lucas. “I never did see her until after we crossed the finish line and when our light in our lane didn’t come on, my heart just dropped. I could feel the engine losing power, but was hoping to maintain the lead the entire way. We’ll move on to Chicago and give it our best.”
Now Lucas is only 30 points from entering the coveted Top 10 in the NHRA POWERade Countdown to the Championship and has accumulated a total of 447 points and is in hot pursuit to grab that position from Doug Herbert, who has 477.
“We’re clawing our way back in, slowly, but surely,” said Lucas. “We’re at the halfway point of the regular season and with only nine races to go before the Countdown starts, I’m beginning to like our chances for the title.”
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