ROBERT PATRICK FOURTH AFTER FIRST DAY IHRA PRO STOCK QUALIFYING

MARTIN, Mich. – Robert Patrick knows an abundance of horsepower is just a clutch call away. The Purvis Ford-sponsored driver from Fredericksburg, Va., conjured a bit too much today during provisional qualifying for the IHRA Torco Race Fuels Northern Nationals at Knoll Gas Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan.

Patrick pushed his Shelby Cobra SVT to a 6.425 elapsed time at 218.12 miles per hour during Torco's CompetitionPlus Pro Stock qualifying.

“I’m pretty happy with that as a starting point,” Patrick said. “We missed a bit on the clutch and had a lot of wheel speed in low gear. If we calm the car down some and take some gear ratio out of it, we ought to go into the 6.30s tomorrow night.”

Patrick admitted that his was just one of the many teams who missed the combination on the first session.

“The track just didn’t represent the good looks it gave us initially,” Patrick said. “We’ll make the right adjustments and come back strong tomorrow. A lot of people missed it out there.”