Clint Thompson-Topeka Post Race Report

Cascade Team Meets West Coast Rival in Topeka

Topeka, Kan- Coming off a semifinal finish in Canada, Clint Thompson was determined to go one round farther in Topeka for the 21st annual O’Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals presented by Castrol GTX.

With more than a full field of alcohol funny cars in attendance, it would be a challenge just to get into the show and it wasn’t until the final qualifying round before Thompson was able to bump into the difficult sixteen car field with a 5.74 at 249 MPH.

"We dropped a valve about 1.5 seconds into the first run which banged the blower" said Thompson. "That put us into a thrash as we didn't have a lot of time between runs on Friday, we replaced the cylinder head and a piston and went up for the second qualifier only to have another issue that time. The car didn't sound right when I backed up from the burnout and I knew it was hurt so I shut it off. That put us in a corner with just one run to go. The weather was really hot and so the tune up was a bit tricky, I just set it up sorta soft so it would make it down the track and we got in" Thompson explained.

In the first round, Thompson faced California rival Sean O’Bannon, whom Thompson saw a lot of in 2008. At the hit, Thompson stabbed the throttle first with a good 0.043 light. O’Bannon was right behind with a 0.051 light. At the stripe the winner was O’Bannon with a slightly better 5.70 at 255 to Thompson’s very close 5.76 at 251 MPH. "For first round, I knew Sean would be tough so we tuned it up a bit, but the temperature got much hotter as did the track, at the last minute, I detuned the motor some to be on the safe side and was just a little off as Sean managed a .'70 flat to my .'76. I thought I had him covered as I didn't see him unitil about 1000 feet. I got a little better light than him and almost pulled off a holeshot win." Thompson said.

It was a very close race and a good outing for the Cascade Auto Group team but it just wasn’t enough to get the first round win. The team will regroup and come out swinging at their next planned event, the Lucas Oil Series division race at the new Spokane Raceway June 13 and 14, then on to Pacific Raceways in Seattle, June 19-21.