Anderson Ready to Run for Fourth Brainerd Trophy
BRAINERD, Minn., August 22, 2015 – Greg Anderson made three passes down the racing surface at Brainerd International Raceway before the weather turned dark and qualifying was cut short by one session, and the driver of the red Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro is ready to take what they’ve learned in qualifying and put it to good use on Sunday at the 34th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals. Duluth, Minnesota-native Anderson will be racing for the fourth Brainerd trophy of his career.
On Friday afternoon in the first qualifying session in Brainerd, Anderson cleared the finish line with a 6.624-second pass at 208.14 mph and followed up with a 6.630, 208.01 in the later session to end the day No. 7.
Saturday’s forecast was dreary, but NHRA pushed the third round of qualifying to a slightly early start to try to keep ahead of the stormy weather. Indeed, the third round came off without a hitch before the remainder of qualifying had to be canceled. Anderson’s last pass was a 6.649, 206.92 that set him in the No. 8 position. He will race Jonathan Gray in the first round on Sunday.
“Another lesson learned for us today,” said Anderson. “We were shocked and surprised, to be honest, that we didn’t improve today – but definitely, it was a lesson learned. We have information that will allow us to make our move for the first run on Sunday, and I would have loved to of had another run in qualifying, but it just didn’t work out that way.”
With weather projected to be much cooler and windier than the first two days of the event, the set-up for the factory hot rods will be an altogether new story, which means that the data accumulated throughout qualifying won’t, completely apply.
“The bottom line is that tomorrow is going to be completely different, so you’re going to have to make a lot of changes,” said Anderson. “You still want to make good runs in qualifying, and we’re definitely not satisfied. But we’ll take what we got and do our best.
“It’s been a very busy weekend for us here at our home track, with a lot of friends and family coming to visit. It’s been fun, and nobody is bored here, that’s for sure. It’s been great reuniting with so many folks, and tomorrow will be a blast. Hopefully, we will have some celebrating to do.”