Annie Whiteley and team picked up the pieces from the frustrating first leg of Woodburn Dragstrip’s Western Regional “double” with their best finish in NHRA competition this season, qualifying atop the Top Alcohol Funny Car field and storming to the final round. “The track changed a lot for that second race,” she said, “and that made all the difference.”
Whiteley shot to the top of the qualifying grid right off the trailer Saturday morning – much to her surprise. “The track was bald,” she said. “Bald. Absolutely, perfectly smooth. They work so hard to make this place perfect, but when it gets that hot, what are they supposed to do? Brian Hough ran right in front of me and just annihilated the tires, so we thought for sure I was gonna smoke the tires, but it made it.”
Whiteley’s “Shattered Glass” Chevy Camaro did more than just make it – it made it to the other end with low e.t. and top speed of the event, a 5.66 at 266.42 mph. “We couldn’t believe it,” she said. Hers was the only car in the 5.60s, comfortably ahead of Ray Martin’s 5.72 and miles ahead of veteran Bret Williamson, who ran a 6-flat and Hough, who never got down the track.
With a 5.70 at 265.95 mph, Whiteley also had low e.t. and top speed of the first round, easily turning back Hough’s similar 5.70/262 after drilling him on the Tree. “The car didn’t smoke the tires that time, but it was kind of slow,” she said. “I mean, 5.70? The clutch was back to being super light. We thought it would be way hot again and figured the clutch would come to us, so we changed hardly anything for the final.”
It made perfect sense, but when the car launched, Whiteley blew ’em off again, and though Martin, now driving the Miner Bros.’ retro-styled Camaro, did too, her car lost traction first and it cost her the race. “Ray pedaled,” she said. “I did too, but I guess I stayed with it too long. It was like, ‘Hey, good job against Brian, but this time … no.’ I pedaled one more time just to feel like I was doing something, but no way was I catching him.”