A Special Place for Andrew Cowin

Indianapolis Raceway Park holds special memories for Australian Top Fuel driver

(Wilmington, N.C. Aug. 29, 2006)—When Andrew Cowin and his Serta Mattresses/Scott Griffin Motorsports Top Fuel team pulls into Indianapolis Raceway Park he will bring a very special memory with him. Other than his IHRA national event victory in Milan, Mich., the quarter-mile strip at IRP is the scene of Cowin’s biggest professional conquest.

In 1999, when Cowin was a 19 year-old rookie driver driving for his family-run team, Cowin shocked the drag racing world by becoming the youngest finalist in US Nationals History. He drove past Joe Amato, Randy Parks and Bob Vandergrift to reach the finals in ’99 before falling to Cory McClenathan with the Wally on the line.

This season, at the MAC Tools U.S. Nationals, Cowin hopes to recapture some of that IRP magic.

“That weekend will always be special for me,” Cowin said. “Here I was, a 19 year-old kid who was just getting his feet wet in American professional drag racing, and I end up in the final round. I love the track and love the event…it really is the biggest race of the season for everyone on the POWERade circuit. Indianapolis Raceway Park is a magical place, if we can get in the field, as 1999 proved, anything can happen.”

Cowin is coming off a disappointing weekend at Norwalk Raceway Park. After qualifying in the #5 position, the Serta Dragster suffered a mechanical glitch, causing a minor explosion that ended the team’s weekend in the first round of eliminations.

“We had a rough go of it in Norwalk,” Cowin said. “It was no one’s fault, it was just one of those things. But the car was running great. Our 60-foot and 330-foot times were amazing and we have a lot of confidence in this car heading to Indy.”

Cowin currently sits 24th in NHRA POWERade points. He is 6th in the IHRA points race despite competing in just four of seven IHRA national events.

“We’re pleased with how things are going,” team owner Scott Griffin said. “We’ve been competitive at every event we’ve entered. This is just our first full season as a race team and the results have been better than expected. We’re all looking forward to Indy…this is going to be a lot of fun.”

For more information on Cowin or the Scott Griffin Motorsports/Serta Mattresses race team, please go to www.scottgriffinmotorsports.com.