Cruz Pedregon’s new Toyota-bodied Funny Car made its debut at Topeka and Pedregon was pleased with its initial performance. Another Toyota racer Jim head was conspicuous in his absence at this event.
Taming a hot and greasy racetrack all three days of competition, Rahn Tobler tuned Pedregon to consecutive passes of 5.026, 5.042, 4.988, 4.965, and 5.021 seconds. His Sunday morning pass of 5.021 seconds would have been much quicker -- possibly as good as 4.90 seconds -- had Pedregon not retired early after realizing he had posted a rare red-light start against first-round opponent Ron Capps.
"The general rule when you red light is to go as far as it feels good," Pedregon said. "I lifted pretty early, as the top speed of 254.33 mph indicates, but we were up in the range of 260-plus mph at half-track and that's a pretty good number for a hot track."
Pedregon pointed to his new Toyota Solara body as one of the reasons the car posted big half-track speed numbers throughout the weekend.
"I'm very impressed with this body," he said. "Obviously, the design speaks for itself. It looks fast just sitting on the ground. The visibility was so good I actually felt a little exposed the first time out there. I have never been in a car where I can see so much. It offers an exceptional view from the driver's seat. It's pretty incredible.”
PRO STOCK
In Pro Stock, Ron Krisher drove his Valvoline Chevy Cobalt past Larry Morgan for his first win of the season and Morgan first final round of the season. Krisher’s run of 6.758 at 204.70 was enough to put him in winner’s circle and give him his first win in over five years.
“I got my driving back, or more confidence in my driving and that’s what I needed,” said Krisher. “I lost confidence in my driving but we’ve got it back. We drove good today, nobody beat us up out there. We took every round.”
Larry Morgan made his first start of the year in the Lucas Oil Dodge Stratus Pro Stocker at Topeka and combined had a series of quick reaction times and great runs until the final round. He eliminated Allen Johnson’s Stratus in the first round 6.772/203.03 to 6.787/203.34. Second round opponent Dave Connolly made a move toward the centerline and clicked off, as did defending 2007 Pro Stock champion Jeg Coughlin. Morgan had a great 0.020 reaction time in the final round against Ron Krisher, but this time it was Morgan’s turn to get loose and have to push in the clutch.