When you’ve run 5.40s all weekend and leave on a final-round opponent who just blew the tires off in the semi’s and is about to run a 5.52, your odds are pretty good. They were, too – for about 10 feet.
Then Annie Whiteley’s car was enveloped in a cloud of tire smoke and she could only look on helplessly as Phil Esz disappeared in the distance for an easy win. “I left pretty low that time [6,400 rpm] and it still took the tire off,” she lamented. “I mean instantly –1.23 60-foot time. [Crew chief] Mike [Strasburg] and the guys wanted to lower the leave rpm just 100 because I was already leaving so low. Maybe we should’ve lowered it 500? I don’t know. All we wanted to do was repeat. Anything from .47 to .49 would’ve been fine…”
In her first appearance ever at world-famous Maple Grove Raceway in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania Amish country, Whiteley was locked in the 5.40s on two of three qualifying attempts and all three preliminary rounds. Nestled into the No. 3 spot with an aggregate best of 5.46/268.92 (top speed of the meet), she faced returning veteran Kris Hool, who hadn’t been seen at an NHRA event in years. She was out first with a .061 reaction time that was, by far, her slowest all weekend, and drove away to a lopsided win with another 5.4, a 5.49 at 266.85 mph.
“Annie’s gotten really good on the lights since we went to this two-step,” Strasburg said, “.030s and .040s all the time and .020s when she knows she really needs one.” Brainerd winner Bob McCosh learned that firsthand under the lights Saturday night in round two when Whiteley beat him, 5.49/266 to 5.46/265, with a .022 holeshot leave. Then Phil Burkart, making his only national event start this season for Jay Blake’s Follow A Dream team, narrowly fouled in the semi’s, sending the YNot team to its first NHRA national event final of the season.
“I’m pretty sure that’s the first time I’ve ever noticed the scoreboards when the other driver red-lighted,” said Whiteley, who’s up to fifth in the national standings. “I thought, ‘Hey, I just won.’ Then it hit the [rev-limiter] chip and I was like, ‘What the hell are you looking at? Shift!’ “