Ashley’s Weekly Blog
Sept. 28, 2009

This past weekend we raced in Dallas, TX in the second race of the NHRA Full Throttle Countdown and it was big as far as points were concerned for Team Force! We went in to the event in 2nd place and 1 point behind Tony in the #1 position. By the end of qualifying Saturday night we had gained points from running consistently well each qualifying session and went around Tony and moved in to #1 by a few points. On Sunday we matched up against Del Worsham in round one so I was nervous because he is a really good and experienced driver and many cars had been going up in tire smoke and though I’m getting better at pedaling the car, I still don’t get much practice at it! Fortunately my crew chiefs Guido and Ron sent me and my Castrol GTX Mustang straight on down the track with no problems so we got passed first round along with my other 3 teammates!

First round all the teams were winning in the left lane so there became a big importance in getting lane choice as the lanes were not even. We got lane choice in the 2nd round against Mike Neff and got around him however lost lane choice to Robert in the semi’s and lost tire traction a little ways down the track and lost that round. Robert ran a good time and gained lane choice over Jack Beckman in the finals and won the race moving around me by 10 points for the Championship.

Though we stayed in the same spot (#2) as we came in to the weekend, this was a great race for Team Force because our teammates also went rounds and the Auto Club team moved all the way in to first so we’ll just try to all keep doing what we’re doing. The one thing we are really hoping to do is all get qualified really good these next 4 races because that’s become really important. Not only do you gain an extra few points here and there but it sets up the ladder where you aren’t running each other until later in the race. The first two races of the Countdown I raced Mike in the 2nd round and Robert in the semi’s. I’d rather be racing other teams outside of my own and racing my teammates in the finals! If we can all qualify strong we give ourselves a better chance of that. See you in Memphis!