Tony Pedregon & Q Racing Team Win at Maple Grove

21st Annual NHRA Nationals
Maple Grove Raceway – Mohnton, Pa.
Q Racing Nitro Funny Car - Pedregon Racing
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series

Tony Pedregon Wins at Reading
Q Racing Shows What Itıs All About

Mohnton, Pa. (September 18, 2005) – Tony Pedregon and his Q Racing Nitro
Funny Car made it to winnerıs circle during todayıs NHRA National Event
at Maple Grove Raceway.

In a nerve wreaking final round against John Force, Pedregon won a pedal
fest with a 
6.349-second elapsed time at 191.02 to beat Forceıs 8.339 seconds pass.
Pedregon, while a
Member of Forceıs team, won this race back in 2003. Todays win is Pedregonıs
first as a 
team owner.

³I could not ask for anyone better to beat than John (Force),² Pedregon said
the 2003 Funny 
Car World Champion. ³You know that when you beat Force, you have beaten the
best. And of 
course, it also feels great to bring my first check home as a team owner.²

Pedregon elaborated about the ride that took the Q team to victory.

³From the beginning, I felt the car was getting loose,² Pedregon explained.
³I thought my only chance was to get off and on the throttle and hope
that the tires recovered. I fought it hard, and even the blower backfire
on me, but I was able to pedal it down the track. Force had to deal with
similar challenges to control the car.²

After almost two years of hard work, Pedregon and his team brought together
the performance and consistency necessary to achieve victory.

³My goal for this season was to bring a ŒWallyı to Qıs headquarters in
Houston,² Pedregon concluded. ³Now I need to reset my goals. This is a long
deserved win for Q Racing and all the support they have provided everyone.
I am very proud of the Q Racing team, they are not only capable of
winning, they also go out and prove it!²

Dickie Venables, crew chief, talks about what this win means to him.

³After more than a year and a half of hard work, this victory is very
gratifying. It makes up for the incident we had on the starting line in
Indy. I am very glad to bring this victory to Q Racing because they deserved
better than what we had been doing so far. Now we have proved what we knew
all along we could do.²

During the first pass of the day, Pedregon beat Mike Ashley to
the finish line, clicking off a 4.850-second elapsed time at 316.90 mph. In
the second round, 
Pedregon had to face his brother Frank (Pedregon). recording an effort of
5.251 seconds to 
Frankıs 5.871 seconds pass.

For the semifinal round, Pedregon ran against Gary Scelzi and, unlike
Indianapolis, the Q driver arrived to the finish line first logging a
4.907-second elapsed time at 314.97 mph.

-PedregonRacing.com-