NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals
Event 18 of 20
Countdown Event 5 of 7
Bristol Dragway
Bristol, Tenn.
Oct. 15 - 17, 2021
Qualified: No. 6 (3.691 E.T. at 327.11 MPH)
The Results:
E1: 7.565 E.T. at 81.47 MPH defeated by Spencer Massey 3.745 E.T. at 328.46 MPH
Race Recap:
By driving the Sparkling Ice Spiked Top Fuel dragster to the second-quickest run of Q2, Leah Pruett earned two qualifying bonus points and secured a spot in the ‘quick half’ of the field at the Thunder Valley Nationals. Starting race day from the sixth position on the ladder, Pruett faced Spencer Massey as her E1 opponent. Just like many of her competitors, Pruett’s machine struggled on the unusually cold track, losing traction at the hit and shoving her toward the wall, forcing Pruett to give up on the run. In the opposite lane, Massey’s machine went right down the groove for the win before exploding into a fiery boomer at the top end.
Pruett departs Thunder Valley ranked sixth in the Countdown to the Championship Top Fuel rankings.
From Leah:
Drag racing does not disappoint on the roller coaster of emotions. We had a great qualifying effort, making that run in the 3.60s, and had a lot of confidence going into race day. But man, the navigation of this track is pretty tricky. This is probably one of the bumpiest tracks on the circuit but that’s it's characteristic, and all race tracks are different and we just didn’t have a hold of it today. Had a real hard shake and ended up into smoke early. It’s interesting how fast things happen, of course. Priority No. 1 is that Spencer (Massey) is safe after his explosion. I got to see it firsthand ahead of me. At one moment there was nothing, and the next moment I’m driving through a range of parts raining down from the atmosphere, dodging and weaving trying to avoid driving over anything. Everyone is safe; unfortunately for us, that first-round loss pretty much takes us out of any championship contention but we will continue to be on the massive offense to finish out the season in the highest point standing we possibly can, hurt some feelings along the way, and continue pushing forward as this Mopar team does. I really did think our Sparkling Ice Spiked car was in good position to bring home a Wally trophy this weekend but we will continue to shine and shatter expectations.
Source: Don Schumacher Racing
