Matter Earns Semi-Final Finish At Houston Raceway Park
LODRS 4-3 Baytown -- Following three rounds of qualifying, Nancy Matter qualified in the seventh spot of the eight-car field. Matter Racing had very little data to work with, as the car never performed to its potential, encountering severe tire shake on each pass. "On our second qualifier, we shook so hard that it sheered all but one blower stud off and lifted the supercharger", noted Matter. "We softened the car a lot for the third run just to get it down the track. We went a little too far, however, we were still in the field, so we were pretty happy to be running on Sunday".
Mother Nature's weather conditions drastically changed from qualifying for Sunday's eliminations, creating a roll of the dice for all competitors at the third of six Division 4 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Events. The track temp jumped from 87 degrees during qualifying to 138 degrees for race day, so it was anyone's race.
Matter knew that Sunday would be no easy task as she was going to race her good friend and #2 qualifier Lee Callaway in the first round. Matter had a decent .029 light and won on a hole shot with a 6.04 over the defending Div 4Champ's 6.01, after both cars were shaking and skating around their respective lanes.
In the semi-final match up, Matter had a .059 light against opponent Steve Burke's .053 light and narrowly missed making it to her first final round appearance. "I saw his motor eating itself up, trailing smoke and slowing, but I short-shifted when the car started to shake and it killed enough of our time, that I was about to the back of his car when we passed the stripe".
"We'd like to thank Mark and Dawn Mazi-Hovsepian from Drag Strip Girl Apparel, as well as Karl and Marty Belt from Applied Tool Supply of Austin for their support at this race. I also want to thank Tom Conway for his continuing educating ways and, most of all, my crew Jeremy Mitchell, Eugene & Kelly Rowson, Jeremy Lowe and Desmond. We all work so well together and it's such an honor to be surrounded by so much talent".
