Mark Cox Racing is Number
One Qualifier
at RockinghamRockingham
Dragway always shows good karma to the Mark Cox Racing team.
Maybe it's the fact that "The Rock" is the team's
hometown track, maybe it's the great fan support the team
receives, or maybe it's the track's connection to Cox's main
sponsor, Bojangles' Restaurant. Whatever it is, "The
Rock" smiled upon the team once again, awarding them
with the Top Qualifying spot in the Screamin' Eagle Top Fuel
class at this past weekend's AHDRA race.
"We were chasing
Doug Vancil's time of a 6.42 ET at 222 mph," said Cox.
"We finally clocked a 6.41 ET and bumped Vancil for the
top spot. It was a real accomplishment to be number one qualifier
with a high-gear bike."
Twenty-three Top Fuel bikes showed up for the Screamin' Eagle
Performance Parts Nationals, presented by The Carolina Harley-Davidson
Dealer's Association, with 16 making the show. If you couldn't
run at least a 6.971 ET, they sent you packing in a very tough,
fast-paced field of competitors.
Cox faired well
in Sunday's finals. In Round One eliminations, Cox advanced
over Tommy Sloan with a 6.731 ET at 205.85 mph. In Round Two,
Mark beat Tracy Kile to the line with a 6.740 ET over Kile's
6.767 ET. In Round Three, Cox spun the tire, dropping a cylinder
and allowing Larry "Drums" Brancaccio to take the
win.
"Sunday was
a little challenging for us," said Cox. "We were
dealing with tire spin each round of eliminations. We just
couldn't quite get a handle on the track. We anticipated about
the same track conditions as Saturday. However, I guess we
didn't back down our tune-up enough. We were running some
great short times this weekend. We were aggressive down low,
so we needed to make adjustments for that. We had been flying
out the backdoor, and now we were getting good down low numbers.
We made some big strides again in preparation for our next
event in Dallas."
Mark Cox Racing
still has two events this season to try to accomplish their
goal of a victory. They'll be in Dallas, Texas on October
9-12 for the NHRA event, then in Las Vegas, Nevada on October
17-19 for the AHDRA finale.
"We're happy with all the progress we've been making
this year and particularly this past weekend. Our Crew Chief
Johnny Vickers voiced our favorite John Force line this weekend...'we've
got a fast hot rod!' We're proving it."
Sponsors
for Mark Cox Racing this year include: Bojangles'
Restaurants, Cross Roads Harley- Davidson, Wilkesboro HOG
Chapter, AlliedSignal/Autolite, Barnett, Buell, Gates Rubber
Company, Hawaya Racing, High Performance Coating, JIMS, LeBleu
Bottled Water, Mac Brown Chevrolet, Performance Machine, Red
Line Oil, Renegade, Simpson, Trailers of the East Coast, Vanson
Leathers, Western Wristpin and WTQR.
Please follow Mark Cox Racing at www.markcoxracing.com.
