After the Circle K NHRA Four Wide Nationals this past weekend, many drivers and teams chose to stick around an extra day and get in some practice and testing at zMAX Dragway.
Kalitta Motorsports was well represented with drivers Doug Kalitta, JR Todd and Shawn Langdon taking multiple passes each. Todd may have had the most impressive run of the day making a pass at 3.9 and 331+ MPH. With the sun shining down and a hot track, the run was quite impressive for the conditions.
Doug Kalitta added some excitement in his final pass and one of the last of the day's session when the car darted to the inside and then back out rapidly causing the only tense moment of the day. Kalitta was able to back the car down and regain control quickly and avoided any damage.
Leah Pruett along with her Tony Stewart Racing team stuck around and appeared to be shaking down a new chassis. Pruett took multiple runs and the car looked good screaming down the track.
Antron Brown and Steve Torrence also took a handful of passes after having some struggles over the weekend. Both cars looked strong and both drivers are looking for the next event in Virginia in just a few short weeks.
Alexis DeJoria and Bob Tasca III worked on their Funny Cars throughout the day and also put down some good runs while battling the heat. Tasca's team was one of the last on track for the day taking advantage of every minute available to them.
From Pro Stock Motorcycle, Matt Smith made a total of 9 runs and was the most active driver on the track for most of the day. Along with running his own bike, he shook down the bike for Jianna Evaristo (Salinas) as she made a triumphal return to the track.
Jianna went down on her Suzuki while testing at Bradenton Motorsports Park earlier in the year back in late January. After thorough inspection, the team discovered that her front fork tubes had broke during her run as she reached the top end of the track. It was a freak accident caused by a parts failure.
It was great to see Jianna back at the track, regaining her confidence and having some successful runs.
Also in PSM, Steve Johnson made some late afternoon passes after working on the bike all day long. After winning the previous day, Steve and a skeleton crew stuck around to break in a new tire and to get some extra passes on the bike. As always, Steve gets the most from a little and was very successful in his passes.
Along with Jianna getting back on track, a few other unexpected cars under the KB Racing banner made passes after having the weekend off. Greg Anderson and Kyle Koretsky both made a handful of passes in their red white and blue Chevy's.
Greg seemed to be ecstatic to be back on track and looked to be struggling with the break in the Pro Stock Season.
Finally, the Paton Racing Team from the North of the border stuck around after Cameron Ferre took the teams car to the Top Fuel final the previous day. While Cameron had already left to get home to his kids, the car was piloted by Kelly Harper who made some impressive licensing runs.
The car did not appear to have slowed down at all and Harper handle the runs masterfully. Congrats on the successful runs today!
It's less than two weeks until the next event, the Virginia NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park.
For more information about the next event:
To see the full photo gallery and some videos from todays testing, check it out on the RPM Facebook page:
#NHRA / #Testing / #DragRacing