Marty Thacker - Joliet National/Jeg's All-Star Preview

Thacker Ready to Defend Jeg’s All-Star Title

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Coming off another good race at the Topeka National event last weekend, the Rapid Transit Race Team is looking to continue their run when they participate in the prestigious Jeg’s All-Star race and the Torco Racing Fuels Nationals this weekend. With another good showing they could move into the Top 10 in the National points standings.

"Working a 9 hour day at my job and another 10 hours on the race car equals very little sleep for this three week stretch. It will all be worth it though if we can get this Knoll Gas – Torco Racing Fuels dragster in the winner’s circle. Halfway through the Topeka event, we re-invented our tune-up. Even though we didn’t get the car flying quick enough to win that event, considering we were using a new way to make her run, we were pleased with the performance. Hopefully, we are really onto something,” said Thacker.

This is the 5th time in the last 6 years the Team will be participating in the Jeg’s All-Star event and they have been able to take home the trophy twice including last year. The Team has proven themselves to be one of the best blown cars in the country and they are looking to distinguish themselves from the competition even further in the next few weeks.

"Route 66 is probably my favorite race track, so to win both events this weekend would be a dream come true. We always look forward to this event; the Coughlin family really goes above the call of duty to make this a special thing for the Lucas Oil Series competitors. It would be great to earn one of the Torco Racing Fuels Wally’s at the end of the weekend too."

On Friday the Team will begin qualifying at 2 PM and have another shot at 5:30 PM that evening. The third qualifying run will also count towards the first round of the Jeg’s All-Star event on Saturday morning at 10:30 AM. Second round for the event will run at 2:30 PM and the final round will be at 4 PM. On Sunday, eliminations for the National event will begin in the morning and continue throughout the day. Please log onto www.dragracecentral.com for up to date coverage of the event.

Quick Facts

• The Team has been to two straight National event semi-finals.
• Last weekend the Team moved up into 12th place in the National standings, just 1 round win out of the Top 10.
• The Team went to three final rounds last year and earned one win at the prestigious Jeg’s All-Star event in Joliet, Illinois. They will be participating in the event again this year as the blocker.
• The Team set a personal best ET of 5.26 at the TORCO Racing Fuels National event in Richmond, Virginia the end of last season.
• The 2005 Division 3 Champions finished 3rd in the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series points standings and finished in 16th place nationally in 2006.
• The Team, based out of Robinson, Illinois, has won 5 UDRA National Championships and 2 NHRA Divisional championships.

Please visit the official team website www.rapidtransitracing.com.

You can access the full line of innovative products offered by our major sponsor TORCO Racing Fuels including racing gasoline, additives, and Skull Gear at www.torcoracefuels.com.

Visit the websites of our current associate and product sponsors at the following websites:

Hoosier Racing Tire – www.hoosiertire.com

Lucas Oil – www.lucasoil.com

Fatheadz – www.fatheadz.com

Submitted by: Shanna Snyder-Bell

Contact Person: Marty Thacker
Contact email address: mlthacker@marathonpetroleum.com