Troxel qualifies 11th in Brainerd, despite mechanical bugs

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 16 of 23
LUCAS OIL NHRA NATIONALS
BRAINERD INT'L RACEWAY
BRAINERD, MINN.
Race Dates: Aug. 12-14, 2005



BRAINERD, Minn. (Aug. 13, 2005) - Melanie Troxel qualified the Skull
Gear/Torco Race Fuels Top Fuel dragster No. 11 for the Lucas Oil NHRA
Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway today, in just her fourth NHRA
POWERade Drag Racing Series race for Don Schumacher Racing.

Troxel recorded her best result, a 4.626-second elapsed-time at 295.34 mph,
in the Friday night session, despite losing a cylinder. That followed a
4.726/253.66 lap in the first round. On Saturday, the team, tuned by Richard
Hogan, was unable to take full advantage of favorable weather conditions in
the third session because of another cylinder failure and posted a
4.639/315.78. The final round saw a 8.810/81.00 pass, slowed by loss of
traction. 

"We've struggled a little bit here in qualifying this weekend," said the
32-year-old Colorado native. "The Skull Gear/Torco Fuels Dragster continues
to drop cylinders, and we're trying to figure out where that is coming from.
In the first three runs we dropped cylinders. The 4.626 is a pretty decent
number considering it dropped a hole at the hit and was running on seven
cylinders. 

"We were trying to run good on the last qualifying run. We kept all eight
cylinders lit and it smoked the tires. Obviously, when we have all eight
cylinders lit we're making a lot of power.

"It's hard on everybody to be in this situation where we don't think the car
is perfect going into eliminations. More than that, it's tough because it's
the same problem we've been fighting week after week. Everybody is working
hard to find the problem. We're going over the car with a fine-toothed comb,
and we'll get it figured out.

"There's a lot of promise here, the car's trying to run good. We just need
to sort out the whole dropping cylinders problem and I think we'll have
something for Sunday.

Troxel faces two-time POWERade series champion Larry Dixon in the first
round of Sunday's final eliminations.