Anderson Lucky No. 7 at Summit Racing NHRA Nationals
NORWALK, Ohio, July 4, 2015 – Greg Anderson has all of his qualifying notes in order, and the driver of the red Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro is ready to run for the trophy on Sunday at the 9th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Norwalk’s Summit Motorsports Park. Anderson, a two-time Norwalk winner, will start from the No. 7 position and race Allen Johnson on Sunday on his sponsor’s home turf.
Anderson kicked off qualifying with a 6.591-second pass at 210.73 mph to temporarily occupy the No. 5 position, and in the second round on Friday, he was 6.561, 211.16 at the finish line stripe.
Saturday was all new, and Anderson came out with guns blazing to wow the Summit Racing Equipment friends in attendance – and there were many, as Summit Racing’s headquarters are located very close to the Norwalk track, in Tallmadge. In the first session, Anderson and his Summit Racing Camaro absolutely flew down the racetrack to a thunderous 6.555-second pass at 211.56 mph that was second-quickest of the round and came with two bonus qualifying points.
Anderson vaulted to the No. 4 position and then came back with confidence for the fourth and final session. His 6.562, 211.26 equated to a start from the No. 7 position. For the driver who has started second or better in each of the most recent previous four races, the outcome was less than ideal.
“We’re trying to figure out what happened that last session,” admitted Anderson. “Somehow, we turned the wrong screws and we really went backwards. The first run today was promising, and we ran pretty well and thought we could identify a few mistakes and make changes so that we could shoot for the pole on that last run. Holy moly, we went over the edge somewhere along the way. I fought the car all the way down the racetrack. We made a boo-boo with each of our cars, so we learn from that and get better for tomorrow. We’re certainly going to have different racetrack conditions, there is no question about that.”
Contrary to conditions in previous years at Summit Motorsports Park, boiling hot temperatures were not in the forecast for qualifying, and the weatherman hit the nail on the head as the track was a manageable temperature on both Friday and Saturday. Conditions on Sunday, however, will likely be quite a bit warmer as eliminations will take place earlier in the day, and qualifying was slated to begin past 5pm on both evenings.
“Tomorrow is going to be a whole different scenario,” said Anderson. “We can forget about qualifying, because it’s going to be so different on Sunday. We’re disappointed, but we have to refocus on the real-life scenario and make a whole bunch of adjustments for those different conditions. The bottom line is that we wish we would have qualified better, but the only way I know how to make that bad feeling go away is to have a really good day tomorrow. We’re going to do all we can to get it right tomorrow, go the distance and win the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals.”