Cory McClenathan drove the FRAM Top Fuel dragster to a semifinal finish during eliminations today at the NHRA Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka. The Wichita, Kansas, native moved up one spot to fifth in the POWERade point standings at the halfway point to the Countdown to the Championship.
Enjoying lane choice for each round as the No. 2 qualifier and after defeating Bob Vandergriff and Tony Schumacher in the first two stanzas, McClenathan squared off against Hillary Will in the semifinals. The FRAM dragster launched hard off the starting line but smoked the tires before half-track. Will took the win with a 4.809/291.51 to Cory Mac's losing 7.197/116.27.
"We got behind here in the pits prior to the semifinals," McClenathan explained of having to deal with clutch problems. "We had a couple of things go wrong, but we win and lose as a team. Our motor was hot going up to the starting line and we were very late getting up there. I was already in the car when we left the pits. The car made a little bit of extra power and it was too aggressive and we smoked the tires. I kind of knew it might be coming, but even pedaling it didn't help it and Hillary went right on down the track and ran a 4.80.
"We felt the FRAM dragster would have run much better than a 4.80, but it's one of those things where we felt we kind of threw that one away. This was our race to win and we lost it. That put Hillary ahead of us in points and we only moved up one spot. We'll have to wait and try to do it again in Chicago.
This shot of Doug Herbert shows why final rounds should run as the sun sets: nitro header flames.