Rob Atchison Rockingham preview

Atchison ready to “Rock” at Rockingham

London, Ontario, March 22 , 2006 Defending IHRA “3 Straight” Funny Car Champion Rob Atchison returns to Rockingham fresh off a runner-up finish the Texas Nationals. “We ran real well here last fall clinching our championship and setting the ET record,” stated Rob Atchison. It would be real nice to add a Spring Nationals Ironman to our collection after breaking our draught at “ The Rock” during the World Finals. We had our problems getting some of our new stuff sorted out in Texas but we are confident we can get things going here. We knocked the new car smell out of the Erickson Tie Downs and Tow Straps Monte Carlo in the first qualifier by going in the sand. The Monte Carlo is back at Ultimate Touch getting some cosmetic work done but should be done in time for the trip to North Carolina but if not we will take the our Pontiac out of the mothballs.

“ We had a problem getting a handle on things in Texas at the start of the IHRA eMax Series because it is not feasible for us to test during off season for two reasons,” stated Atchison. First, we were very busy at our machine shop in London building motors for customers as well as preparing engines for both of our cars. Three of our customers (Glen Kerunsky IHRA/NHRA Pro Mod), (Trevor Lowe West Coast Pro Mod) and (Tim O’Hare NMCA) have already started their seasons on a positive note. Glen was runner-up at the NHRA GatorNationals and won the IHRA Texas Nationals, Trevor raced his Pro Mod against Nitro Coupes in Pomona at the Super Chevy event and won the event and Tim O’Hare became the first car in his Outlaw Street class to run a 6.40 setting the ET record on his way to a runner-up finish in Bradenton. Secondly, it is also next to impossible to load the race trailer early in the year because the weather here is so unpredictable because of the Great Lakes weather effect. We missed the first Texas Nationals because we had freezing rainstorms followed by major snow squalls in 2003.

The Atchison Racing Team had penciled in the NHRA Lucas Oil Division 3 race in their schedule for April 7-9 and was going to use that as a valuable test session under race conditions but the race was cancelled at the last minute do to inclement weather. “ If we could have known a day ahead of time on the Indy cancellation we might have been able to go to Valdosta, Georgia and run Divisional race there,” stated the Champion. Valdosta is about 24 hours drive from home compared to 8 hours for Indy. We really wanted to try our luck with the Roots blower against the NHRA guys and their screw blowers.

For more information on Atchison Racing visit www.atchisonracing.com or the IHRA eMax Drag Racing Series visit www.ihra.com

Contact: Dennis Smith (519) 451-3890 dennis@atchisonracing.com