Troxel takes No. 9 in Chicago qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 20 of 23
Ameriquest Mortgage NHRA Nationals
Route 66 Raceway
Joliet, Ill.
Race Dates: Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 2005


JOLIET, Ill. (Oct. 1, 2005) - Melanie Troxel had her hands full in
qualifying for this weekend's Ameriquest Mortgage NHRA Nationals, literally,
as she overcame some sharp moves from the Skull Gear/Torco Race Fuels Top
Fuel Dragster in two of the four qualifying sessions.

A solid, safe run in Friday night's session of 4.536 seconds, which produced
her career-best speed of 326.95 mph, did land her in No. 9 at the end of
qualifying.

In her first run on Friday, the car drifted to the left, and Troxel's
driving experience luckily prevented the car from crossing the centerline,
allowing her to post a 5.404/171.51 pass. In today's third session she
experienced another wild ride as she managed to keep the sashaying car going
relatively straight to a 5.064/195.28 pass.

The final qualifying round today resulted in a strong, straight pass down
the quarter-mile and a 4.563/321.42 lap.

"We struggled all weekend with the way the car's reacting," she explained.
"We thought we were being real aggressive with the tune-up and it was having
some effect on the car and we're not entirely sure what it is. We tried
putting a lot of front wing in it, putting weight on the front end, a lot of
different things. 

"We seem to find something and we try something a little bit different and
we're back to where we were with the car moving around.

"But I think we have something to work with right now. We have two good,
consistent set of numbers. We missed out a little bit on running something
in the 4.40s Friday night, but I think we've got a car that will go out and
be competitive on race day.

"In order to run good Friday night (in cooler conditions) you really need to
get that first pass in and get the car qualified safely so that you can
afford to go out and step on it in the night-time run. Unfortunately, we
weren't able to do that from the way car was reacting out there. The smart
thing to do was just go out (in the night session) and put a good number
down, get qualified solidly in the field, and that's what we did."

Troxel faces Morgan Lucas in the first round of eliminations on Sunday.