November 15, 2009
Strasburg pleased with Pomona performance despite early exit, Ends season at No. 15
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
45th annual AUTO CLUB NHRA FINALS
Auto Club Raceway at Pomona (Calif.)
POMONA, Calif. (November 15, 2009)
Mike Strasburg Final Report
For B&J Transmissions Top Fuel driver Mike Strasburg, the first round of Top Fuel eliminations Sunday at the Auto Club NHRA Finals at Pomona was a classic setup of a David vs. Goliath battle as he faced off against the multi-time world champion Tony Schumacher, but the ending was far from the Biblical results: Strasburg put up a good fight but in the end, failed to take down the giant.
Strasburg squeaked into the ladder on his last qualifying attempt based on his speed, having tied Troy Buff's elapsed time effort of 3.995-seconds, but surpassing him with the tiebreaking mile per hour, 300.66 mph to Buff's 289.63 mph. At the No. 16 spot, Strasburg was paired against the No. 1 qualifier, Schumacher, who was engaged in a fierce round-by-round battle with Larry Dixon for the Championship title.
Sunday morning, as the two lined up, Strasberg said he was aware of the implications of the round for Schumacher, and added, "for me, it was just another round.
"We squeaked into the show on Sunday, and we knew we'd have a fight on our hands, as usual. There are no easy opponents in this class," he said.
"It was a little odd when Tony went in and turned on both bulbs, because I didn't know if it was one of his crew chiefs looking for the beam, or if he was in, so I waited, and then moved in slowly. I think that threw him off, because he's normally really fast on the tree, but I was ahead of him when we left."
Strasburg had a .092-second reaction time to Schumacher's 0.121, and actually was ahead at the 60-foot marker. "I didn't see him at all until we were about at half-track, and that's when that right lane got the best of us, like it had so many others just in front of us. We lost traction, and it was all over," he said.
At the stripe, it was Schumacher 3.838 at 314.17 mph to 5.085 at 140.31, but the loss did little to take away from Strasburg's ever-positive attitude and never-ending smile. At the end of the day, Strasburg landed in the No. 15 spot overall for the season - a great accomplishment considering he only ran eight of 24 races.
"We had a great season, and I'm really pleased with our progress. Of course, I want to say thanks to my team for all their hard work, and thank my sponsors, Procomp Motorsports, Jim Whitely and all the YNot? racing guys, Dirk Olson, and Mike Knowles. It takes a lot to run this, and they really have helped out all season long.
"We're working with a couple of sponsors for 2010 and hopefully we can run the whole season next year. That's the plan, anyway," Strasburg said.
ROUND BY ROUND
Q1: 7.362/94.91
Q2: 3.999/303.23
Q3: NO TIME
Q4: 3.995/300.66
E1: LOST TO SCHUMACHER, 5.085/140.31 TO 3.838/314.17
Posted to Auto Racing - Drag Racing by Motorsports Journal « Go Back
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