Anderson earns another No. 1
Memphis TN (8/19/06) -- For the 49th time of his career Greg Anderson, driver of the KB Racing LLC-owned, Summit Racing Equipment-backed Pro Stock Pontiac GTO, will hold the No. 1 qualifier position when drivers are introduced during opening ceremonies for the 19th annual NHRA O’Reilly Mid-South Nationals tomorrow.
Until today, Memphis Motorsports Park (MMP) was one of two tracks, the other being Richmond, on the 2006 schedule that Anderson had not earned a No. 1 position. This No. 1, the ninth top spot in 2006, changed that stat.
On Friday, a late-afternoon thunderstorm swept through MMP and pushed back the first round of qualifying until the 9 o’clock hour and cancelled the second. Of the three sessions that were run, including two on Saturday, Anderson’s best elapsed time was a 6.742 seconds pass under the lights on Friday, which lowered the track elapsed time record.
"To be able to run that under these conditions says a lot," said Anderson after his blast on Friday evening. "It (the track) is still very green out there. The rubber was all washed away. So we expect it will get better as the weekend goes along, but it won't be this cool again so we could very well be a tenth off tomorrow. It should be 100 degrees with track temps in the 140s.
"It's good to get the upper hand for now but qualifying hasn't been our big snafu this year, that’s been race day. But we feel like we're ready to break though and get on a roll where we win some races. Our confidence is higher now than it's been all season."
Today Anderson, who was on top all three rounds, added the following, “It’s going to come down to the driver and the tuners,” Anderson said. “If you go over the edge either way with your set up, you’re going to slow down. It’s a tricky racetrack. We proved that today with our Summit Racing Pontiac. We missed the set up each trip down the track today. You’ve got to hit the target, run fast and the driver has good to be good. That’s my goal tomorrow and hopefully go four rounds.”
Anderson, who is seeking to join the late Lee Shepherd and Bob Glidden as the only NHRA drivers to win four consecutive Pro Stock titles, has two wins at Memphis, the first in 2003 over Jeg Coughlin and last year he defeated Kurt Johnson.
In the first round of eliminations, Anderson will pull to the line opposite Greg Stanfield, who qualified No 16 with an elapsed time of 7.793 se
