Troxel has tough day in Seattle with early exit

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2006 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 14 of 23
SCHUCK'S AUTO SUPPLY NHRA NATIONALS
Pacific Raceways
Kent, Wash.
Race Date: July 21-23, 2006


KENT, Wash. (July 23, 2006) - Melanie Troxel, driver of the Skull
Shine/Knoll Gas-Torco Race Fuels Top Fuel dragster, entered today's Schuck's
Auto Supply NHRA Nationals at Pacific Raceways with thoughts of reclaiming
her lead in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Top Fuel point
standings, which she relinquished last weekend in Denver. But a first-round
loss to Denver winner J.R. Todd put a damper on her weekend after a strong
showing to qualify No. 4.

Troxel had lane choice on the slick, hot track in that round and posted a
solid reaction time of .092 of a second (.000 is perfect), but her quicker
4.675-second pass at 313.44 mph was not enough to stage off Todd's .058
reaction time and slower but holeshot-winning 4.682/311.05 pass.

With points leader Doug Kalitta exiting in the second round, Troxel now
trails him by 40 points in the rankings.

"I felt like we had a pretty good handle on this track, so to come out and
lose is frustrating," said the 33-year-old Colorado native. "As a driver, a
holeshot loss hurts a little extra.

"That was a good light for me. It wasn't a spectacular light for me, but the
chances of us beating his .058 light with the way we set our car up was
pretty slim." The margin of victory was .0275 of a second.

"We need to seriously turn this deal around," she added. "There's not any
one thing that you can point to and say that has changed. We just don't seem
to be having any luck, and I hate to say that, because it's certainly not
all luck out here. You just have to get a little momentum, or mojo, or
whatever, and we don't have that right now. We're hoping to find something
to get things turned around out here.

"It's nice that we had a better handle on this race track than we did in
Denver, and hopefully we can carry some of that knowledge through the
rest of the summer. Richard (Hogan, crew chief) seems to have found a
better setup for these hot tracks, so that is good for us. We'll be OK.
Maybe we just need a stupid little superstition or something to give us
a spark.

"We'll just gather ourselves and head to Sonoma (Calif.). There's not
much else we can do at this point."

Next up is the Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma,
Calif., July 28-30.

TOP FUEL POINT STANDINGS:
1. Doug Kalitta, 1031
2. Melanie Troxel, 991
3. Brandon Bernstein, 888
4. Tony Schumacher, 881 (winner today)
5. Dave Grubnic, 825
6. Rod Fuller, 799
7. Larry Dixon, 772
8. Morgan Lucas, 653
9. Cory McClenathan, 623
10. Hillary Will, 605