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NHRA: Santos to Make Second Career Run at Bandimere Speedway in Denver

15 July 1999

Rick Santos, the 1998 and 1997 NHRA National and Division Seven champion will make his second career start at Bandimere Speedway for the Mopar Parts Mile-High Nationals, July 15-18.

Santos ran the Division Five event at Bandimere in 1997 and was top qualifier. He tied the track record at the time with a run of 5.79 in round one, but lost in the second round to Tiffany Hyland.

"The track is up 5,000 feet and has no air, so it is pretty difficult," said Santos. "It is a nice challenge to go to a place with different conditions. We have to change a lot of things to the car to make it run good in those conditions. We look forward to running against some dragsters that run divisions five and six. I believe Nicholson will be there as well and he won the division race there earlier this year."

SANTOS CLINCHES DIVISION SEVEN CHAMPIONSHIP FOR THIRD CONSECUTIVE YEAR

Rick Santos clinched the Division Seven championship for the third consecutive year with a win at the Division Six event at Woodburn (Ore.) Dragstrip, Sunday, July 11.

"None of us talked about the possibility of clinching the championship this weekend," said Santos. "But the pressure was there. We did it a week earlier than this in 1998, but we feel our program is on track. It will be nice to be able to concentrate on the national events."

"We had the opportunity to experiment some with the clutch at Woodburn, which we feel is making the car more consistent."

Santos has eight wins in 10 starts so far in 1999. Three of those wins came at a national level with wins at Pomona (Calif.) Raceway, Atlanta (Ga.) Dragway and Old Bridge Township Raceway Park (N.J.).

Santos has also scored divisional wins at Speedworld (Ariz.) Motorplex, Firebird (Idaho) Raceway, Famoso (Calif.) Raceway, Sears Point (Calif.) Raceway and Woodburn (Ore.) Dragstrip.

He has been top qualifier seven times in 10 starts in 1999.

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