AREND PUTS A SOLID 4.87 ON THE BOARD, SITS 7th AFTER FRIDAY
While the professional classes spent a long day at the race track on Friday, in the end only one session was completed, and Jeff Arend's solid 4.873 was good enough to place him 7th with two Saturday sessions left on the schedule. After many weather-related delays, the Funny Cars were in the lanes and moments away from running when light rain began to fall after 10:00 pm. That was all it took to wipe out the second run, and a better weather forecast is being prognosticated for Saturday.
"Nothing but a nice solid, clean, run," Arend said. "It rattled just a bit leaving, but it cleared up and just went right down the track with no issues really. That lap was just your basic definition of a 'good solid pass' and we'll take it. We wanted to get back out there for the big-time night run, but it was really obvious that bad weather was all around us. For the longest time, we were just lucky enough to be in this one clear slot between to storm systems, and that's why we got the one lap in, but then it started getting late, the humidity went way up, and the air was just soaked. Once we got some sprinkles, there was no way to do anything.
"The goal for Saturday is just to keep doing what we've been doing. We've been consistent all year, and we aim to stay that way all weekend. The forecast is for partly cloudy skies and it's not supposed to get too hot, so we should have a chance to do some good stuff out there in front of all these great Topeka fans."
