Tony Pedregon Opens Sonoma On Top

NHRA 2005 NOTES & QUOTES

18th Annual FRAM-Autolite NHRA Nationals
Infineon Raceway - Sonoma, Calif.
‘Q’ Racing Nitro Funny Car - Pedregon Racing
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series

Tony Pedregon Back On Top in Sonoma
Q Racing Nitro Funny Car Fast Out of the Box

SONOMA, Calif. (July 29, 2005) - Tony Pedregon drove his Madagascar-themed
Q Racing Nitro Funny Car to the first position during today's first two
rounds of qualifying for this weekend's Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals at
Infineon Raceway.

Pedregon, who could capture his third number-one qualifier of the 2005 NHRA
POWERade Drag Racing Series season, made a 4.759-second elapsed time at
321.12 
mph during the second run of the day.

Pedregonıs pass reset the elapsed-time record for the Infineon Raceway,
which he accomplished in 1997. At the beginning of the
Season, the Chino Hills, Calif., resident also broke the elapsed-time
record at Pomona (Calif.) Raceway with a 4.681-second pass at 323.35 mph.

"Today we encountered optimum conditions at Sonoma,² Pedregon
said. ³They were very similar to Pomonaıs, and Dickie (Venables, crew chief)
and I decided to go for a .74 or .75 pass. The down force was as good as it
gets and we took full advantage of it.

"Our Q motor oil keeps supporting us and that's one of the influencing
factors in this great qualifying effort," Pedregon added. ³If you qualify in
the top three or four in one of these fields, you're off to a good start. We
don't know what tomorrow holds, but if it warms up, that will be good for
us. There was no damage done to the engine and I feel there is even more
left in the car. Performance and consistency are coming together and we are
very optimistic about our chances for this weekend.²

Pedregon commented about the colorful Magadascar movie theme decorating the
Q Racing entry.

³I think our sponsors love the look of the car. I have to say that the Q
Racing car did not run all that bad for having a hippo on itıs back.²

-PedregonRacing.com-