There always seems to be a new mechanical mystery that prevents a driver from winning a quarter-mile drag race.
Greg Stanfield found one in the finals of the Four-Wide Nationals two weeks ago in Charlotte. He’s been drag racing for many years in NHRA’s Sportsman and pro categories, but he’d never been sidelined by a piece of “trash” that got into the engine’s carburetor on March 29. It happened in the Four-Wide Nationals finals and dropped him into fourth place.
“The trash caused the carburetor to flood,” recounted the driver of Kenny Koretsky’s Nitro Fish Pro Stock Pontiac GXP. “It had never happened to me before, and I wish it wouldn’t have happened when it did. But what can you do?
Stanfield is confident he won’t be concerned about any recurrence this weekend during the O’Reilly Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park. “You should see the size of the new filter I now have on the carburetor,” the team’s engine builder said with a chuckle. “That should take care of it.”
Nevertheless, Stanfield did drive into the title round of the unique event and he sits fifth in early NHRA Countdown to the Championship standings.
“We’re getting better,” he said of the new team’s performance after four events. “It just takes time. I’ve been working on some new stuff and getting ready for the next two races.”
Crew chief Eddie Guarnaccia, another drag racing veteran, said he planned to use a different motor this weekend, “and we want to continue testing different clutch parts. We’re still not running as quick as we need to be in the last half of the track.
“We’ll keep working on it. We have back-to-back races, too, and that doesn’t give you much time to do everything you want. We’re going to keep working on it until we get it right.”
The Las Vegas race follows, April 16-18.
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