Marty Nothstein Indy wrap up

If It’s Labor Day, It’s U.S. Nationals Time
The Texas Roadhouse Team wraps up their NHRA national race season

Milford, Michigan. The Texas Roadhouse Dodge Charger Top Alcohol Funny Car, Marty Nothstein and ParkerTech Racing Services closed out a satisfying 2007 NHRA national race program at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals. The “Nats” is THE race on NHRA’s twenty-three event dance card and always takes place on Labor Day Weekend at O’Reilly Raceway Park, near Indianapolis. Twenty-five TAFC teams, the best in the country, showed up with the common intent of making the sixteen car field.

Frank Parker, team owner, and his dad, Dan, entered the Nats with a season of good runs in their race notebook. Two division wins and a team all-time best pass have contributed important data to the notes. Driver Marty Nothstein has hit consistently quick reaction times and proven able to drive difficult tracks and handle tough situations.

Even with all that data and experience, qualifying wasn’t easy. In each of the four sessions, cars moved up and down in the qualifying ranks and on and off the sixteenth-spot bubble. Nothstein’s best run placed the team ninth, almost perfectly matched with their first round, eighth place opponent.

The first elimination round went in favor of the Texas Roadhouse Charger before the lights even went green. As NHRA’s commentator put it, “Daniel Wilkerson made a classic rookie mistake and went -0.191 red” to foul out of competition. Nothstein ran a great 5.694, 245.63 lap, which came up just short of lane choice for the next round.

After a night of refreshing their Mopar Hemi, studying their data and carefully putting together a tune and race strategy, the Parkers rolled Nothstein into the water box just after noon on Monday. They and Frank Manzo would be the first pair, in the second round. At any race, facing a multiple championship-winning racer like Manzo would be nerve racking. Squaring off with him at the U.S. Nationals is an experience Jim Croce could immortalize in a song. But Nothstein had tugged on Superman’s cape before and that drag racing son of a gun didn’t faze him. Marty’s .029 reaction time left the big man sitting at the line with two one-hundredths of a second to make up. Then a hush fell over the start line as Manzo made up for his tardiness and edged by Nothstein for the win.

Later, in the pits, Frank Parker had an upbeat attitude about the race. “The Texas Roadhouse car has been among the national top ten alcohol funny cars all season by being competitive and consistent. We’ve been cutting the gap between us and Frank all season. Marty even beat him with a hole shot. Losing to him isn’t discouraging at all.”

As of September 11, the Texas Roadhouse team is ninth in the top ten and second in Division 3, the first time out of first place this season. As other teams continue to race, these standings could change. A season summary will be released when the standings appear firm. 2007 releases may be viewed at www.challengerconsultingllc.com/ParkerTech.htm.

Texas Roadhouse opened in 1993 and, just 14 years later, now has more than 251 locations in 44 states. In 2006, readers of Consumer Reports named Texas Roadhouse the Top Concept in its Pub/Grill category and Forbes ranked it one of the 200 Best Small Companies. For restaurant locations, menus and more, visit Texas Roadhouse at www.texasroadhouse.com.



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Charlie Henry

Challenger Consulting

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