NHRA Midwest Nationals
Event 16 of 20
Countdown Event 3 of 7
World Wide Technology Raceway
Madison, Ill.
Sept. 24 - 26, 2021
LEAH PRUETT
Driver of the Okuma Top Fuel Dragster
Qualified: No. 4 (3.714 E.T. at 326.00 MPH)
The Results:
E1: 3.701 E.T. at 326.16 MPH defeated Clay Millican 3.883 E.T. at 253.80 MPH
E2: 3.769 E.T. at 316.01 MPH defeated Billy Torrence 6.575 E.T. at 122.59 MPH
E3: 20.077 E.T. (speed not recorded) defeated by Mike Salinas 3.713 E.T. at 328.06 MPH
Race Recap:
Double-duty driver Leah Pruett started race day from the No. 4 position after recording the third-quickest pass of Q3 aboard the Okuma Top Fuel dragster. Against her round-one competitor, Pruett moved first and powered her machine to the win in 3.701 seconds to defeat Clay Millican’s 3.883-second effort. In round two, Pruett once again had the starting line advantage and drove straight down the groove, never trailing, as Billy Torrence lost traction early and was forced to give up on the run. The semifinals pitted Pruett against No. 1 qualifier Mike Salinas. Pruett stood on the throttle and immediately went up into tire smoke. She gave it a quick pedal but her machine quickly let go with a fireball, ending Pruett’s chances at a first Midwest Nationals Top Fuel triumph.
Pruett occupies the No. 6 spot in the Top Fuel standings heading into the Texas NHRA Fall Nationals.
From Leah:
Reaching the semifinals is always a plus, and some of those ahead of us went out early so that helps bunch up the points a bit. We had some big match-ups today. The first round against Clay (Millican), you never know what they’re going to throw out there, that’s a fast car. Our Okuma machine laid down a solid 3.70 pass. That second round was big and that was a fun race against Billy (Torrence) and he’s right ahead of us in the points and that’s an opportunity to be the giant killer and pass them. Getting that win from burnout to turnout was great. We had to swap blowers before the semis and that changed the tune-up a little bit. I wish I could put my thumb on what happened and why it smoked the tires at the hit, but we don’t have any data from that run. It shows the clutch was charged during staging and then nothing. Disappointed, slightly. Heartbroken, absolutely not. Something about this weekend and this team just resonates, and it’s really hard to beat a team who never gives up. That’s exactly who we are. We’ll keep going with this momentum in Dallas.
Driver of the Dodge Challenger Mopar Drag Pak
Qualified: No. 5 (7.821 E.T. at 174.64 MPH)
The Results:
E1: 7.982 E.T. at 169.04 MPH defeated by John Cerbone 7.883 E.T. at 177.72 MPH
Race Recap:
Leah Pruett qualified her Dodge Challenger Mopar Drag Pak fifth to earn lane choice over fellow ‘top 10’ ranked driver John Cerbone in round one. Cerbone got the jump on the starting line and never trailed, powering his machine to a 7.883-second pass to outrun Pruett’s 7.982-second effort, ending her day early.
From Leah:
Talk about a phantom. We’ve nicknamed this beauty ‘phantom’ and we had phantom issues with our Mopar Drag Pak. We lost boost on a qualifying run and swapped superchargers and compressors and then for E1 we put a new adjuster on it and it lost boost earlier in the run. There’s something plaguing us with a really good running Dodge. We do plan to test before Vegas as we want to finish strong. Our team, as a whole, is very strong going rounds with Mark (Pawuk) to the semis and Dave (Davies) getting his first round win. I’m having a great time driving. It does hurt not going rounds, but this team has been through a lot, and we have shown what it needs to push forward and make the right calls.
Source: Don Schumacher Racing
