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NHRA: Team Exide uses power, consistency in chalking up another final round appearance

19 July 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
MORRISON, CO- After qualifying 5th for the Mopar Parts Mile High Nationals, Tony Schumacher and the Exide Batteries Drag Racing Team marched through Sunday's eliminations en route to their seventh final round appearance this year. In the final race of the day, Schumacher lost a close race to Joe Amato and the Dynomax/Valvoline Team.

In the opening round of eliminations, Schumacher faced off with Doug Herbert's Snap On Tools backed Dragster. Herbert left the starting line first by more than a tenth of a second, but Schumacher made up the difference by half track and pulled away for the win with a 4.755 second Elapsed Time (ET) at 304.87 mph.

For the second and third rounds, the Exide Team faced Larry Dixon and Don Lampus, respectively. Schumacher was able to win both of these rounds with consistently quick runs of 4.736 and 4.761 ET's.

Crew Chief Dan Olson's tune up accounted for the only dragster to run 4.7 second ET's in every round. This tune up was a big change from the one used for the qualifying rounds, as Olson searched for the right combination. The unique conditions of this race, the race track is over 5,000 feet in altitude, makes for less air and the engines don't make the kind of power they do at sea level.

The final round brought on the Dynomax/Valvoline team of Joe Amato. Schumacher left the line first, but inexplicably, the dragster slowed to a 4.913 ET, losing to Amato's quicker 4.837 ET. The margin of victory was just fifty five thousandths of a second.

"We really aren't sure what happened to the car," said Schumacher, "we'll have to look at the computer and see if we had a failure because that was not the number we had planned to run."

However, the weekend was a success in the points battle for the 2000 Winston Championship. Team Exide gained valuable points on Gary Scelzi, who lost in the first round, and now trail Team Winston by just 39 points.

Next up on the National Hot Rod Association tour is the Prolong Super Lubricants Northwest Nationals presented by NAPA Auto Parts, July 28-30 in Seattle, WA.

Text provided by DAVE ENGELMAN

Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot racing photos and art, visit The Racing Photo Museum and the Visions of Speed Art Gallery.