Championship Drag Racing

Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals
Reading, Pa.
(Oct. 3-5)
(rain out reschedule)

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David Baca American Racing Wheels Top Fueler

Reports: Sunday Saturday Pre-race

Reading, Sunday: For David Baca, driver of the American Racing/Waterloo/Skill Clean Top Fuel dragster, a nightmare ended when he lost in the opening round of the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals in today's eliminations.

The race, originally scheduled for September 12-14, was postponed until this weekend, October 4 and 5, when rain interrupted qualifying on both September 12 and 13 with only one qualifying session completed. When the rescheduled action resumed yesterday so did the rain, allowing the professional teams just one additional time on the Maple Grove Raceway quarter-mile.

"For me this race has been a nightmare," said Baca, a contender for rookie of the year honors. "My only memory of my trip to Maple Grove will be a picture of rain and a first round loss."

Baca, from Brentwood, Calif., was a victim of a career best elapsed time by Paul Romine. Romine ran the quickest pass of his career when he recorded a pass of 4.524 second. Like his qualifying run of yesterday, in the opening round of today's eliminations, Baca experienced some tire shake and after driving through it, fell short on the top end with an elapsed time of 4.623 seconds. The win light went to Romine.

"It seems that drivers are getting revved up when they come up against this American Racing/ Waterloo car," Baca said. "This is the second week in a row that our opponent has run a career best against us. First round losses are really hurting our chances to advance in the point race and we must get things turned around before next weekend in Dallas. I think, and I'm very hopeful, that we have found an answer that will put us back on pace at Dallas."

It's on to Dallas for the seventh consecutive weekend of racing. Baca and the American Racing/Waterloo Tool Storage/ Skill Clean team will be competing at the 18th annual NHRA O'Reilly Fall Nationals presented by Castrol Syntec at the Texas Motorplex. The event unfolds next weekend.

In the point battle, Baca leaves Maple Grove Raceway and heads to the Texas Motorplex No. 6 in the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel point standings. He now has 947 points, 31 behind Cory McClenathan, who hold down the No. 5 position.

Reading, Saturday: The NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series continues to make up race dates previously rained out as David Baca, driver of the Henkelman & Baca Motorsports American Racing/Waterloo Tool Storage/Skill Clean dragster, returned to Maple Grove Raceway to finish qualifying and eliminations for the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals.

On Sept. 12, NHRA was forced to reschedule the Lucas Oil Nationals due to rains with only one qualifying session complete. At the time, Baca was in the ninth qualifying spot by virtue of a pass of 4.609 seconds at 311.99 mph.

In today's first try, after a morning rain once again delayed qualifying, tire shake forced Baca to shut down the American Racing/Waterloo/Skill Clean dragster, coasting to a run of 9.856 seconds. Baca held the No. 11 qualifying spot after two qualifying sessions were completed (first session being on Sept. 12, the second being completed today).

Well, after one session was complete today, it rained some more this afternoon. In fact it was still raining at 6 p.m., causing NHRA to cancel any remaining qualifying. The field is now set for tomorrow's eliminations based on the completed sessions.

Baca, who is currently in sixth place in the POWERade Top Fuel standings, qualified No. 11 on the final ladder and will face Paul Romine, who qualified sixth with a run of 4.564 seconds at 310.13 mph, in the opening round. In May, the pair met in Englishtown, N.J., with Romine coming away with the win. Baca hopes to reverse the tables tomorrow.

"I don't believe lane choice will make a difference," Baca said. "It seems like a pretty even race track at the moment. We've raced Paul (Romine) one time and the outcome wasn't what we had hoped for that time. I feel if we do the job we are capable of doing, this American Racing/Waterloo/Skill Clean car will come out and even the score. The weather forecast for tomorrow shows clear and cool. Johnny West (crew chief) has been pretty successful of late with his cool weather setup."

Reading, pre-race: With six races left on the 2003 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series schedule, David Baca and the Henkelman & Baca Motorsports team ready the American Racing/Waterloo Tool Storage/Skill Clean Top Fuel dragster for this weekend's NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway, in the picturesque Amish country of eastern Pennsylvania.

Weather cooperating, Maple Grove Raceway is a track known for performance. For example, just two years ago Tony Schumacher pounded out a pass of 333.08 mph on the Maple Grove Raceway quarter-mile.

"I'm really excited to be heading to what I consider one of the fastest tracks in the country," Baca said. "Weather permitting, I would be willing to state that a national record will fall, maybe more than once in Top Fuel. I would even venture to say that based on what we ran at Indy, I think we might be one of those people that are potentially capable of doing it ourselves.

"We've done well, especially over the past three races, and while we want to run the big numbers, as a team we want to keep our momentum going and be consistent doing it. That will be our number one agenda at Reading."

In 2003, Baca has qualified for all 17 events (through Indy) on the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, qualifying in the top half of the Top Fuel field in 11 of the 17 events. At the last race, the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, he captured his first No. 1 qualifying position of his career.

Baca, from Brentwood, Calif., was runner-up at Sonoma and reached the semifinals at Gainesville, Las Vegas and Atlanta and currently is sixth in the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel point standings, just nine points out of the top five. His rookie season performance has been right there with the veterans, running a career best elapsed time of 4.499 seconds and a career best speed of 326.32 mph on the quarter-mile track at Indianapolis Raceway Park.