Event:  25th annual NHRA Spring Nationals

Location: Royal Purple Raceway, Baytown, Tex.

Day/Date: Sunday, April 29, 2012

Greg Anderson and the Summit Racing team came into Sunday’s final eliminations of the NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston, Tex. looking to continue their 2012 string of race day successes, having advanced to the final round in four of this season’s five races.  To do so, they knew they would need to elevate their performance and find a competitive consistency.  Further complicating the team’s assignment were the increased temperatures and humidity at Royal Purple Raceway, which would not only rob their naturally aspirated engine of valuable horsepower, but also require changes to the tune-up in order to maximize performance.

Starting fifth, Anderson used a solid 6.605-second, 209.78 mph run to defeat Kurt Johnson in the first round.  This set the stage for a quarterfinal encounter with No. 4 qualifier David Connolly, who had posted the second quickest time in the opening round.  Although the four-time champion posted a representative 6.611-second time with a top speed of 210.05 mph, his opponent was able to score the round win with his 6.596-second, 210.11 mph pass.

“For some reason, we were off on the set-up the entire weekend,” said Anderson.  “It wasn’t for lack of trying, as we threw everything at our Summit Racing Pontiac looking to better its performance, but it never really responded the way we wanted it to.  We made a couple of decent runs in qualifying, but just could not duplicate them today in the heat.  We spun the tires at the hit in the second round, and it cost us.