2007 Ignitor - Boise, Idaho

Lara and I left OKC on Thursday, May 11th and headed Boise Idaho. After getting our rental van and running a shuttle back and forth from the airport we finally got settled into our hotel for some rest. We met up with the rest of the team Friday morning for breakfast and then headed out to the track. There was no qualifying on Friday, but a test session was scheduled for that afternoon. After setting up camp for the weekend, we now could concentrate on our test run. This would be our second time to run the new M&H tire. We talked about it and decided that I would drive the car as far as it felt comfortable. The car left good and pulled strong through the middle of the track, but around 700 ft. I started to notice a vibration so I shut it off around 1000 ft posting a 6.03. It was on a very strong run. Our team felt very confident leaving the track Friday night.

Saturday afternoon brought our first qualifying session, we went to right lane and lined up next to Brett Harris. Our car left good and was on a nice run until about 200 ft. when it started to rattle the tires, so I quickly pedaled it and the car recovered nicely and off we went. Not long after that Brett ended up taking out the finish line cones and was in my lane so I had to lift. Since there were no timing clocks left to get our time, our run was disqualified. After going back to the pits, during servicing the car I noticed a crack in the main webbing of the block, so out with this motor and in with the backup motor. The crew did a great job in swapping engines, no problems at all! We are now headed up for our last qualifying attempt. This time in the left lane the car leaves hard and pulls strong for about 1200ft then it starts feeling just a bit on the sour side so I lifted only to get a face full of oil! Blinded by the oil, I duck my head under the windshield and as I did I see that there is a pretty fair size fire at my feet and legs! So I quickly get the car stopped and get out. The fire crew was right on me before I even stopped, they did a great job and I can not thank them enough! The run just happened to be good for the number one spot, 5.90 at only 228 mph! Luckily no broken parts either, just some oil that got past the motorplate and into the cockpit was lit on fire by the bellhousing.

First round on Sunday paired us with Shannon Stuart in the Circuit Breaker. In what was way to close of a race we pulled out the win with a 6.05 to Stuarts 6.06! This round win gave us a bye run in the 2nd round with an automatic trip to the finals against Mike McClennan. Mike had lane choice and chose the left lane.... the only lane we had been able to get down! As we leave the line together, our car repeats its last trip down the right lane. Tire shake at about 200 ft. and I pedaled it and it recovered but not before Mike moved out about a car length on me and he made a flawless run at 5.97 to my 6.16. I just could not catch him!

All in all, we had a great weekend! Congratulations to Mike Fuller and Mike McClennan on a well deserved win. I also want to thank the New family for putting on a great race and being so accommodating to all the racers, nobody does it better than these guys!

Til next time, Troy & Lara

E-mail: Top Fuel Troy