Paul Noakes Racing Goes To the Semis @ Route 66

Paul Noakes Racing Goes To the Semis @ Route 66

Joliet, IL – The Paul Noakes Racing Team headed to the Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, IL for their second event with the hopes of learning how to run their new combination competitively.

With 14 cars trying to qualify for the 8-car field Friday night, the team laid down a 5.73 @ 254mph pass, qualifying them 5th. “We backed the car down to make sure we went down the track and got some useful data. This was only our 5th lap on the car with the screw blower and the 1st lap without shaking” Noakes said. There were 3 cars that ran 5.73, only separated by .007 of a second, for the 3rd to 5th qualifying spots.

The extremely hot Saturday’s first qualifying run came after a 2 and a half hour delay, where the track temp dropped from 130 deg to 109 deg. After changing the tune-up in the staging lanes to take advantage of the better than anticipated conditions, Noakes ran a 5.69 @ 253mph pass. “We wanted to run our first .60 with this car, so we are pretty happy. Before the run, Les (Mellows – Crew Chief) said that the car should run a .69 or a .68” Noakes said.

After quickly servicing the car for the next round and then another 2hr delay, it was after 10pm when Noakes finally got to make his 3rd qualifying pass running 5.66 @ 255.83mph, qualifying him 7th for the 2nd quickest field in Regional Event history, pairing him against the 15-time world champ, Frank Manzo for the first round of eliminations.

Sunday was another hot, beautiful day and the Paul Noakes Racing Team was pumped. Paul was on his game, cutting a .046 light to Manzo’s .081. Shortly into the run, the crank trigger broke, shutting off the engine. Fortunately for Noakes, Manzo had troubles of his own and Noakes beat the 15-time world champ to the finish line.

After a 1-hour thrash in 92 deg heat, finding and replacing the broken pieces and performing the normal service on the car, the team was able to make the 2nd round on time and were looking forward to the match against 3-time divisional champ, Chris Foster.

Noakes was again on his game, taking a huge reaction time lead, .018 to Foster’s .073. The car was on pace for another mid-5.60 pass until it found a bad spot in the track and shook. Noakes had his hands

full but made a race of it, slowing to a 5.88 @ 252mph to their 5.81 @ 251mph, losing by a mear .0215 seconds at the stripe. This ended another successful weekend for the Paul Noakes Racing Team.

“We made huge strides this weekend. We really started to gel as a team, Les is getting a handle on the tune-up of this new combination and I am getting comfortable in my own car again” Noakes said. “With only 2 events and a total of 9 passes on the car and we are running with these teams, says a lot about my whole team. We are still learning and our confidence is growing. I couldn’t be happier.”

The next event on the schedule for the Paul Noakes Racing Team is the NDRA Nitro Nationals at the Toronto Motorsports Park in Cayuga, ON - June 23-24.

The Paul Noakes Racing Team would like to thank the following sponsors: Meritor, Euclid, Harman HVS, Total Fleet Service, Dr. Brock Rondeau, Northland Dental, Home Comfort Services, DoubleClick Advertising and Essential Technologies.

For more information on the Paul Noakes Racing Team, please visit www.noakesracing.com or become a fan on the Facebook Fan Page (http://www.facebook.com/groups/59058908861?ap=1)