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Drag Racing Story of the Day!

The Chicken Choker Chronicles: Atco

Big Rain, Big MPH, Big Sleep!

By Len Cottrell

[Len Cottrell has been sending updates on his and Tim Slagle's Chicken Chokers Federal Mogul Dragster team this year as they chase NHRA Division 1 fame and glory. Here's the update from Atco, NJ. Click here to check out all the other Chicken Choker Chronicles. bp]

Atco, NJ -- It rained hard through Friday night and all day Saturday; nobody ran.

We ran the first qualifying session Sunday against Cliff Bozzelli. Two weeks ago, we were supposed to race Cliff in the final round at Maple Grove. However, that race was postponed due to a track curfew. We decided then to race the Maple Grove final during the first qualifying session at Atco. In the match, Bozzelli ran 5.62 to win the Maple Grove final and to take # 1 qualifier here. Bozzelli and Tim left the line with identical reaction times of .479. However, our car moved about two car lengths and went up in smoke. We were too aggressive for the track conditions (and were too greedy to win!)

We came back for the next qualifying session, softened up the power on the starting line and ran a 5.65 at 252.95 mph! This put us in the # 2 spot out of 14 FMD entries at Atco. The fastest we had previously run was 249.78 mph and had been looking to break the 250 barrier. At the end of the session, Troy Buff, the #6 car in the country, had made the trip from Texas and moved into the # 1 spot.

Now for the big sleep! We ran Dave DeAngelis in the first round. Tim ran the car most of the way through first gear, lifted for .7 seconds due to tire shake, put it in second gear and still ran a 5.76 at 251 mph. However, he got beat by a 5.89 at 231 mph! Dave had a .451 reaction time and Tim had a .619 reaction time, giving up .168 seconds on the starting line. We will be working on that.

Bozzelli won the first round, then had two singles to win the race. We currently have a lock on second place in the points and are now chasing Bozzelli who has not lost a single race since the last race of 2000!

On to Lebanon Valley (Albany) NY in two weeks...

Len Cottrell
len.cottrell@lmco.com

Click here to check out all the early season Chicken Choker Chronicles
Click here to check out the Lebanon Valley, NY, Chicken Choker Chronicles
Click here to check out the Numidia, PA, Chicken Choker Chronicles
Click here to check out the Englishtown, NJ, Chicken Choker Chronicles
Click here to check out the Cecil County, MD, Chicken Choker Chronicles

 




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