Houston Spring Nationals

Brenda earned her first win in Super Stock at the 2018 NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston, Texas. The car debuted last year but only competed for half a season due to engine problems. To earn a win in Super Stock after only a short time is a dream come true.

After five rounds, Brenda squared off against Craig Gualtiere in the final round. Airing live on FS1, Brenda left the starting line with a .014 reaction time and never looked back. The National Parts Depot Super Stock Camaro crossed the finish line in 9:28 seconds, at 138 MPH.

In addition to her success in Super Stock, Brenda wheeled her National Parts Depot 1969 Camaro Stocker to a semi-final finish. To be in competition with both cars on Sunday was a feat in itself!
The weekend started off with a flat tire on the Super Stocker. Then a collector on the headers was bent when it caught on the trailer ramp while backing the car out. Thankfully, Bill was able to plug the tire, and with a little help from friends the collector was able to be hammered out, making first round qualifying in both cars. Friday’s schedule called for 4 rounds of back-to-back qualifying however, the schedule was changed. With rain in the forecast, the decision was made to cut one of the qualifying rounds and add first round of eliminations. With few sportsman’s classes and the limited number of cars, there wasn’t much downtime between runs. Returning to the pits with one car, safety equipment was moved to the other car, tires checked, and it was off to staging again resulting in a busy day. Thankfully, Friday was a success and the Grubbs were in bed early!
Saturday was another busy morning with three rounds of back-to-back eliminations. With car counts getting smaller with each round, things went quick with no time to rest or even look at the ladder to determine the next round opponent. It was super sweet to arrive in staging and learn of the fourth-round bye in Stock, securing a spot in Sunday competition. It was even better to learn about the Super Stock bye into the final round when sitting on the scales at the end of Saturday. Both cars would compete on Sunday!
History could have been made with Brenda being the first female to double up. Lots of talk from the announcers and racers were excited about the possibility. While Brenda didn’t perform to her standards in the Stock semi-final round as she had a late light, it provided her with motivation to get it done in Super Stock. NHRA Female Sportman history wasn’t made, but Grubbs history was made with the first Super Stock win!
It was an awesome weekend for Brenda Grubbs Motorsports and a HUGE thank you for your continued support of the team! Without Teammates like you this would not have been possible!

Upcoming Races

Topeka
National Event 18-20 May
Denver
National Event 20-22
Jul
Topeka Double
Divisional Event 26-29
Jul

Travels with Brenda National Dragster

The next article for “Travels with Brenda” has been submitted and should appear in the coming weeks. The subject of Brenda’s follow on article has been selected and the interview will be in the next week or two.

Female Winners

Brenda was honored to be mentioned in the NHRA Women of Power Sportsman feature the week of the Houston race. With the Houston win Brenda’s NHRA National event win total is now at two. Her record in NHRA National event finals is now 2 wins in 4 finals. When added to her IHRA events she is now 4 wins in 6 national event finals.

Divisional Recap

The Dallas Double Divisional races were great opportunities to learn. The data gathered from these races directly impacted the tuning decisions for the cars at the Houston national event.
The Dallas Divisional proved to be challenging as the weather started out like last year with warm humid weather for the first race followed by a cold front passing through on Saturday evening and a track temp of 37 degrees on Sunday morning for eliminations. We finished the second race with first and second round losses. This indicated some work needed to be done on the cars to be ready for the Houston national event. It was a good thing Bill had vacation for the week, as he had zero down time in between events. After all the checks, rechecks and changes that were made to the cars, the performance at the Houston race was gratifying.