TOPEKA – J.R. Todd reflects back to a year ago at Heartland Park Topeka and wishes he could have changed the outcome of his day.
He was marching into the finals of the O’Reilly Summer Nationals against fellow ‘Brat Pack’ member, Brandon Bernstein and although he eventually became the runner-up in the Top Fuel division for the 2007 event after running a respectable time of 4.667 seconds, he was outdistanced by Bernstein’s 4.582 seconds run.
It was his seventh final round appearance of his young career and was hoping to add to his impressive list of five NHRA victories.
“I would very happy to repeat the performance we had in Topeka again this year,” chuckled Todd. “The Lucas Oil Octane Booster team is heading in the right direction and I can’t wait to get to Topeka to see what we have in store for the other teams. The guys are working really hard and it’s beginning to show. The car’s presentation is coming around like my driving, I’m anxious to get back on the track in Topeka.”
At the last NHRA race in Bristol, Todd walked away with Top Speed of the meet, his third of his racing career, flourishing with a speed of 330.80 mph showing their competitiveness.
“This car has always made big horsepower,” said Todd. “It’s good to know we’ve got it back with Top Speed in Bristol. That may not win you the race, but you know you have an aggressive car and now we need show what we can do.”
With the summer weather rolling around, the temperatures are rising and that spells more obstacles to overcome for the crew chiefs trying to propel a dragster with a track temperature hovering near 125 degrees.
“If the sun bakes the track, it can get kind of slippery for us,” said Todd. “That’s make it hard to back down 8,000 horsepower, but it evens up the playing field. I don’t feel we’ll see a definite car running that hard in the heat. I’m just glad we have a great hot weather tune up and hopefully we’ll let it shine in the Kansas sun and that will play right into our hands.”
The start of the 12th annual O’Reilly Summer Nationals begins at the Heartland Park Topeka on Friday, May 30 with two nitro qualifying sessions starting at 4:30 p.m. (EDT) and 7:00 p.m. Saturday’s time trials start at 12:30 p.m. for the nitro classes followed by a second session at 2:30 p.m. The race starts promptly at 11 a.m. on Sunday, June 1.
J.R. TODD—LUCAS OIL RACING DRIVER NOTES:
J.R. Todd, of Lawrenceburg, Ind., has five NHRA POWERade Top Fuel wins out of seven final round appearances. He claimed his first win, the 2006 Mopar Mile-High Nationals in only his eighth start defeating Tony Schumacher in the finals. He finished eighth in the 2006 NHRA Top Fuel Point standings with 1,105 points after completing his first full season on the competitive 23-race NHRA circuit. He finished eighth with 2,273 points in 2007, making the cut of the first class for the Countdown to the Championship.
Todd’s’ quickest elapsed time is 4.473 seconds, set on Feb. 11, 2007 at Pomona Raceway. He sped to his fastest top speed of 334.24 mph on Nov. 4 in the first round of eliminations at the 2007 Auto Club Final in Pomona, Calif. He has won two Low E.T. qualifier awards—his first on July 21 at the Seattle International Raceway recording a time 4.577 seconds and Sept. 22 on the all-concrete surface of the Texas Motorplex setting the pace with his run of 4.541 seconds. J.R. Todd’s first NHRA Top Fuel event came behind the wheel of the Dexter Tuttle-owned dragster in the 2006 CarQuest Auto Parts Winternationals at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona on February 12, 2006. He was awarded the 2006 Road to the Future award, which recognizes NHRAs top performing rookie driver. DOB: December 16, 1981.
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