Schumacher Electric Pro Stock Motorcycle riders Chip Ellis and Craig Treble qualified seventh and 13th, respectively, today for the 44th annual NHRA Finals, the final race of the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.
CHIP ELLIS, Schumacher Electric/XXX Racing Fuels Suzuki Pro Stock Motorcycle (No. 7):
Ellis made his best qualifying pass during Saturday’s first session, recording an elapsed time of 7.049 seconds at 187.31 mph (No. 7). His other runs were a 7.112/185.13 (No. 7) on Thursday, 13.205/56.52 (No. 8) on Friday and a 7.055/185.64 on his final qualifying attempt on Saturday. He qualified in the top half of the 16-bike field for all 17 races this season and has never failed to qualify in 67 career NHRA national events.
“Overall, qualifying went pretty well,” said Ellis, who is No. 7 in the point standings. “We broke a motor on our qualifying run Friday and we put a new motor in this morning and (crew chief) Steve Tartaglia got a handle on it right away. We made two good laps today and I had two good lights (reaction times) and to me that’s the most important thing.
“I’m trying to gain some consistency back on the tree,” he added. “I was reasonably consistent this weekend and I’m real happy about that. Our Schumacher Electric/XXX Racing Fuels Suzuki ran great today and we just want go out there and execute tomorrow and do the best we can.”
Ellis will have lane choice over No. 10 qualifier Steve Johnson in round one on Sunday.
CRAIG TREBLE, Schumacher Electric/Albrecht’s Fast Track Suzuki Pro Stock Motorcycle (No. 13):
Treble kicked off the NHRA Finals with his best qualifying run of the weekend on Thursday, laying down a 7.134/185.84 lap, good for No. 9 at the time. He also made passes of 7.147/184.12 (No. 10) on Friday and a wild 16.286/43.49 (No. 13) and 7.136/180.57 (No. 13) on Saturday.
“We were struggling on our short times during qualifying this weekend,” said Treble, who is No. 8 in the points. “The bike didn’t want to cooperate until the last session. Steve Tartaglia got a handle on it on that last hit but unfortunately it fell on its face on the top end. We’ll put the top-end tune-up back in it for eliminations. This Schumacher Electric/Albrecht’s Fast Track Suzuki is definitely capable of running 7.0s.”
Treble took a wild ride during the first session Saturday morning, nearly falling off the bike as it bucked like a wild bull off the starting line. “I tell you what, that was definitely a wild ride this morning,” he said. “I thought I was going to get bucked off that thing, to tell you the truth. But we came out OK and Steve took a look at the graph on the computer and got it straightened out for the last session. I was a little apprehensive on that last run. I just wanted to make sure I made a good clean pass, which we did.”
Treble will race No. 5 qualifier Angelle Sampey in round one on Sunday. Neither is in contention for the Pro Stock Motorcycle championship. Only three riders have a chance of claiming the crown: Matt Smith, Eddie Krawiec and Chris Rivas.
| 
|