Greg Anderson and the Summit Racing team experienced a little bit of everything during qualifying for the NHRA Arizona Nationals.
After opening with a solid run on Friday afternoon, issues with their set-up forced an early shut-off in the evening session, followed by a slightly off-paced lap on Saturday morning due to tire shake.
Fortunately, on his final attempt, Anderson was back among the quickest of the “factory hot rods”, covering the quarter-mile in 6.556-seconds with a top speed of 210.65, third best for the round and good enough for the fifth starting position and a first-round match-up with friend and rival Kurt Johnson.
However, his ride did not end there, as his parachutes failed to blossom fully, requiring Anderson use all of the lengthy shut-off area at Firebird Raceway to bring his car to a stop. As if this were not enough, extra fuel in the exhaust pipes ignited, causing a brief fire that was quickly extinguished by the NHRA’s Safety Safari.
“For whatever reason, my parachutes deployed but didn’t blossom fully, sending me into the desert with the snakes,” remarked Anderson. “On top of that, I was so busy trying to get stopped that the fuel loaded up in the cylinders, so I couldn’t get the motor to turn back over and blow out the exhaust fire. Fortunately, the Safety Safari was right on it, and there was no damage, so we’ll be ready to go tomorrow morning.
“We still haven’t cracked the case wide open with my Summit Racing Pontiac. Although it was better on that last run, earning my first qualifying bonus point of the year, it was still off the pace of the top two cars, so we’re going to keep working at it getting it right. The important part is that we have a good starting spot and we’re on the opposite side of the ladder from Jason (teammate Line). It’s supposed to be another nice day here in the desert, and we’re looking to make the most of it.”
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