Treble races to the PSM semis at the Gatornationals
DON SCHUMACHER RACING 2010 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES Round 1 of 17 - Pro Stock Motorcycle category 41st annual NHRA GATORNATIONALS Gainesville (Fla.) Raceway March 12-14, 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501; cell 203-243-2438; jstropus@earthlink.net TREBLE RACES TO THE SEMIS AT THE GATORNATIONALS GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 14, 2010) Craig Treble rode the Valvoline Motorcycle Oils Suzuki to the semifinal round at the 41st annual NHRA Gatornationals today, in his first race with Don Schumacher Racing since he was a DSR team member in 2008. He started the day from the sixth qualifying position, meeting up with Mike Phillips in the opening round of Pro Stock Motorcycle eliminations. When Phillips red-lighted, Treble cruised to victory with a 6.901-second pass at 193.49 mph. Treble was then paired up against David Hope in the second round and once again his opponent left a tick too early and fouled out, giving Treble another round win. It turned out to be a lucky break, as he struggled to steer the Suzuki to a 7.038/186.07 pass. In the semifinal round he used some gamesmanship which delivered him a .011 reaction time (.000 is perfect) to Eddie Krawiec's .076, but Krawiec ran him down at the finish line, taking the win with a 6.903/194.63 to Treble's losing 6.971/189.52. ³Coming into eliminations I was pretty confident we had a pretty fast Valvoline Suzuki, and we did,² said Treble. ³We went out first round and ran a 6.90 and the second round we had a really weird thing happen. The tire tried to come off of the bead and I had to really ride that thing down the track. "The first and second round I was given a break because both of those guys red lit. I was .030 in the first two rounds on the tree so I was safe and not too late. I was happy with that.² ³Against Krawiec I went after the tree. I tried to hang out Eddie on the tree as long as I could and, when itıs time to stage, itıs time to stage, before you get timed out. So I was .011 on the tree to his .076, but he just ran me down on the other end.² "In the second round Krawiec raced Steve Johnson. He didnıt go low for the weekend but he went 6.85, which was darned close. So, Steve (Tartaglia, crew chief) put in the best tune-up he could for the semifinal round and we came up a little bit short.² The Don Schumacher Racing crew scrambled to get the bike ready for the weekend and making it to the semifinal round didnıt disappoint Treble, who is fifth in the points after the first event of the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing season. ³Iım just happy that we made it here, we made a good show, we qualified well and we went some rounds,² he said. ³Weıve got six passes on these bigger motors (100cc's were added to the Suzukis) and Iıve got six passes on that bike. We went to the semis at the Gators and we gave Valvoline Motorcycle Oils some exposure. So, all in all, it was a fair day and weıll continue pressing on and trying to learn this new engine combination and Iıll try to learn how to ride the bike a little bit better.² The series heads to zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C., for the next stop on the tour on March 25-28. UNOFFICIAL PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE POINT STANDINGS, after one of 17 events: 1. Eddie Krawiec, 119 (winner today) 2. Shawn Gann, 94 (runner-up today) 3. Karen Stoffer, 84 4. Hector Arana, 76 5. Craig Treble, 75 6. David Hope, 58 7. Andrew hines, 54 8. Steve Johnson, 53 9. Junior Pippin, 36 10. Matt Smith, 33 ***