At the Mid-West Drag Racing Series’ Summer Smackdown, the first major event at drag racing’s next big-time track, Flying H Drag Strip, Annie Whiteley went out early for the first time all year. The driver of the 276-mph “Shattered Glass” Camaro was nipped by defending MWDRS Funny Car champion Steve Macklyn in the first round but still enjoyed the J&A/YNot Racing team’s first trip to the all-new Midwestern facility just east of Kansas City in Odessa, Mo.
“It’s a nice track,” Whiteley said. “They’re still working on it but I think it’s going to be a really nice facility. They ran out of time to finish the asphalt in the upper pits before this first race and there was still a lot of gravel because everything is so new, but the Funny Cars and Pro Mods we were all on asphalt.”
Whiteley started from the fourth position, behind husband Jim, who led all qualifiers with an outstanding 3.61, perennial NHRA championship contender Bob McCosh, and Macklyn, who joined Jim in the low 3.60s. Veterans Mark Billington (3.68) and Lance Van Hauen (3.78) rounded out the field.
When eliminations got under way, Jim was upset by Van Hauen and Annie came out on the wrong end of a tough first-round match with Macklyn. She was on time with a .066 reaction time, but Macklyn, whose car is equipped with a trans-brake, got off the line with a telepathic .007 reaction time and led from wire to wire in a great race, 3.64 to 3.66. Still, there was reason for optimism with the newfound promise of Whiteley’s two-step setup.
“I miss revving the car up on the starting line like I used to, but I have to say I like this thing because, let’s face it, it’s definitely helped,” Whiteley said. “Without the two-step, whenever it smoked the tires, I’d be panicked, like ‘Did I just mess up the foot swap?’ Now, I’m not. Like [brother-in-law] Jeff [Strasburg] says, there is no foot swap, so how can you mess it up?”