Mopar Flexes Pro Stock Muscle at Maple Grove
Team Mopar NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals Maple Grove Raceway -- Mohnton, Pa. Qualifying Notes & Quotes Mopars¹ Populate Top Half of the Provisional Field Morgan, Alderman, Johnson and Wilson Make Statements MOHNTON, Pa. (Sept. 13, 2003) The Mopar Pro Stock contingent exerted a little strength during the first round of qualifying for this weekend Lucas Oil Nationals at a soggy Maple Grove Raceway. Persistent wet weather and a local curfew cancelled second-round activity. Besides the Mopar drivers, Dodge¹s new Hemi-powered Stratus was the star of the show. Only five cars got down the left lane, but three of those five were factory Mopars. Larry Morgan led the way by grabbing the provisional fifth position with a 6.807-second elapsed time at 202.82 mph, the fourth fastest time of the session. The Newark, Ohio, resident was also the first Pro Stock driver to get down the left lane on Friday night. ³We made a bad run too,² said Morgan, who qualified fifth at last weekend¹s U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. ³I¹m very pleased with what we did. The track is just terrible out there, but this new car was able to get through it. We were lucky to get down a track like that. ³We feel great, making a run that bad and still do that well in the standings,² Morgan added. ³I can¹t wait to get over to that right lane and see what happens.² Mopar teammate and three-time POWERade Pro Stock World Champion Darrell Alderman followed that up with a 6.813-second elapsed time at 202.00 mph. His pass, also made in the left lane, positions Alderman right behind Morgan in sixth. ³We made a great run,² Alderman said. ³The car left real hard and had a .989 of a second, 60-foot time, but it was a little loose at the top end. I think we know what to do to cure that tomorrow. Hopefully. It won¹t rain tomorrow and we can lay one down in the morning. You definitely need to leave straight here because it¹s not like Indy, where you have a real wide groove. Mark (Ingersoll, crew chief) adjusted the pre load on the wheelie bars and it left like a shot gun.² Then it was Allen Johnson¹s turn in the left lane. The two-time NHRA national event winner drove his Dodge Stratus to the seventh slot with a 6.814-second elapsed time at 202.18 mph. ³That left lane was a handful,² Johnson said. ³(Teammate) Darrell went first, hollered back on the radio and told me what to look out for and what to expect. When I put it in high gear, it was like there was water on the track. Fortunately, we both stayed straight and pretty much drove through it. We¹ll be better in the right lane, and I think we have our engines back up to snuff. ³This Stratus is an awesome race car,² Johnson added. ³And both Larry and Gene have cars just like ours. It¹s a great race car on a bad track.² Mopar¹s Gene Wilson was the only factory Mopar to make a pass in the right lane. Despite running in the better lane, Wilson went early in the session and was only the second car to get down the track at the time. He posted a 6.822-second elapsed time at 202.42 mph, collecting the provisional eighth slot. ³Unfortunately, I was one of the first Mopars¹ to go down the track,² Wilson said. ³I was doing a little field testing on the track conditions. I think there¹s a high 6.70-second run left, and there¹s so much improvement left in this car. It was simply bouncing all the way down the track, and I was one of the few who got down the right lane in the first six or seven pairs. It was all I could do to fight it. I think that a 6.82, under these conditions, shows that my Stratus has a lot of power.² -Mopar.com- For more information, contact: David Harris, Cox Marketing Group Public Relations Manager Team Mopar NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series davidh@coxmarketinggroup.com (704) 799-2114 office (704) 756-9301 mobile