BURGESS RECORDS PERSONAL BEST IN FIRST ROUND

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Roger Burgess knew he’d need to bring a lot of performance to beat former NHRA Pro Modified world champion Jay Payne in the first round of the NHRA Midwest Nationals in St. Louis, Mo.

The successful businessman from Duluth, Ga., did just that and recorded a personal best elapsed time along the way, but it wasn't enough.

Unfortunately for Burgess, the run wasn’t quick enough to defeat Payne, who ran the quickest elapsed time of the season for the Jegs Pro Mod division.

“I choose to look at the positive side of this because our team worked really hard and the car ran really well all weekend,” Burgess said. “Naturally I hate to lose, but when you come up against a 5.92, that’s always a tough challenge to overcome.”

Burgess entered eliminations as the eighth quickest.

Today’s loss snaps a four race string of finishing in the semi-finals or better for the Burgess 1963 Corvette.