Event:  25th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals

Location: Pacific Raceways, Kent, Washington

Day/Date: Sunday, August 5, 2012

Summit Racing Pro Stock Camaro racer Jason Line made the most of what he and his team had at their disposal on Sunday, scoring a runner-up finish at the NHRA Northwest Nationals in Seattle, Wash.  Starting from the sixth position, Line defeated Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards and Vincent Nobile in the early rounds before squaring off against Erica Enders in the final.

Running without lane choice on what proved to be a one-lane racetrack (of the 15 rounds contested on Sunday, only two winners came out of the less-preferred right hand side), Line knew he would need to gain every advantage in order to score his second win of the season.  Although he was able to gain a slight edge at the start and make the third-quickest run of the day in that lane at 6.631 seconds with a top speed of 209.72 mph, it was not enough to hold off his opponent’s charge, as she used a 6.614-second, 209.65 mph pass to record the win.

“I didn’t want to go up there and give it away, so I did the same thing I had done all day, and we just came up a bit shy,” said Line.  “Lane choice was certainly a major factor, not only in the final, but all day, and I also felt like we left a little bit out there on that last run, with the end result being game over.

“Still, considering we are working to dial in our Summit Racing Camaro, it says a lot about this race team that we were able to make it to the final.  Although we naturally would have preferred to leave here with the trophy, all in all, it was still a pretty good day.”

After missing his first qualifying attempt due to a transmission problem, Line and his KB Racing crew found themselves scrambling to catch up.  Although they were able to come back on Saturday in the heat and record some of the quickest times among the “factory hot rods”, they remained in the sixth position, lining up some very tough opponents for race day.

Undaunted, Line opened the first round with the third-quickest time at 6.601-seconds to eliminate rival Jeg Coughlin, Jr.  It was a similar situation in the second round, as the reigning Pro Stock champion was second-quickest, covering the quarter-mile in 6.620-seconds with a top speed of 209.43 mph to defeat 2009 Pro Stock champion Mike Edwards.

The final obstacle between Line and his fifth final round of the season was young Vincent Nobile.  Once again, the KB Racing driver emerged victorious, but the somewhat circuitous route he took in reaching the finish line slowed him to an elapsed time of 6.657-seconds, costing him lane choice for his encounter against Enders.

“At this point, we just don’t have a handle on the tune-up for these race cars, but we’re still leaving with a runner-up finish, so our day could have been a lot worse,” said Line.  “I know we’ve said this before, but these cars are still very new, and we’ve been away from the shop for a few weeks, so any development work we could do to make them better has been limited.

“We know have a lot of work to do, so we’re going to pack up and head home tonight so we can get started.  It’s all we can do, and with Brainerd in a couple weeks, we are more than ready to get back to the winner’s circle.”