NHRA News: Baca returns to action at Seattle (7/20/2004)

Baca returns to action at Seattle

7/20/2004

"You see the name on the side of my car – The Spoiler. Well, that's our plan."
– David Baca

After sitting out four races to attend to business commitments and regroup his racing operation, David Baca, from Brentwood, Calif., will rejoin the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series at this weekend's 17th annual CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at Pacific Raceways in Seattle.

Now racing as an independent, Baca will be at the wheel of the D. Baca & Family dragster. Rick Henkelman and Larry Meyer will be handling the tuning duties and will be assisted by full-time crewman Kevin Poynter and Jeff McGuire and several additional part-time personnel.

"I am very optimistic going into Seattle," Baca said. "As we regrouped, we found a few things that needed to be addressed on our hot rod and we addressed them. We have a great motor tune up and believe we found some additional things in the bellhousing that will help. Even with the rule change in nitro, we feel we'll be right there with everybody when we hit the track on Friday.

"The competition is as thick as ever. The same guys are running the same numbers - speed and so forth. I'm very confident that we'll join right in there and be in the thick of things. I feel that we will be more consistent now than we were prior to Topeka when we parked the car. Our goal right now is come out and be a consistent race car."

Baca, a contender for last year's Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award honoring the top rookie of the year, returns to the track No. 13 in the POWERade Top Fuel point standings with 372 points, just 14 points behind the 12th spot, 26 behind 11th and 140 points out of the top 10.

"Our current plans call for us to run half of the remaining races," Baca said. "We plan on rocking the world. We're going out there to win races. It's still conceivable to me that we could finish in the top 10.

"You see the name on the side of my car – The Spoiler. Well, that's our plan. We're out there to win rounds no matter who's in the other lane. No matter his spot in the point standings. I firmly believe that if we do well out there that we can attract someone from corporate America to put their name on the side of this car. That's the carrot for me this time out."

D. Baca & Family is pleased to be associated throughout the remainder of the 2004 season with marketing support from Champion Spark Plugs, Don Steves Chevrolet in La Habra, Calif., Goodyear, Lucas Oil and Mac Tools.

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