NHRA (POMONA) - Troxel has Early Exit from Top Fuel Competition

Melanie Troxel’s departure from Top Fuel competition came much earlier than she had predicted in the first round of eliminations at the Auto Club NHRA Finals against formidable foe, David Grubnic.

He just outdistanced the Avon, Ind., resident by just a couple of feet turning the elapsed time clocks on at 4.549 seconds, 330.15 mph to Grubnic’s winning time of 4.542 seconds, 326.00 mph. The margin of victory was .026-thousandths of a second. Troxel qualified the Vietnam Veterans POW/MIA dragster in the No. 5 position with an elapsed time of 4.525 seconds, 309.27 mph.

In her Top Fuel career, Troxel has amassed a total of 116 rounds of competition out of 83 starts with a win/loss record of 87-79. She won four Top Fuel events and reached the finals 16 times. Her first race was the 2000 Winternationals at Pomona Raceway driving the Jerry Darien IN-N-OUT Burger Top Fuel dragster. She joined the Morgan Lucas racing team at the beginning of 2007 season and won two NHRA National events (St. Louis and Memphis) for the organization. Troxel will finish ninth in the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel standings with 1,173 points for the 2007 season.

For 2008, she will be joining the Evan Knoll Funny Car group and will debut in the CarQuest Auto Parts Winternationals on Feb. 7 – 10.