Hagan Powers Into Semis At Norwalk

August 28, 2006 - After sneaking into the bottom half of a spectacular field of Pro Modifieds at Norwalk Raceway Park, Matt Hagan made his own luck during early elimination rounds and piloted his 19633 Split-Window Corvette all the way to the Semifinal round before suffering a possible busted oil line that would knock him out of the event.

In Round One, Hagan faced off against 2005 World Champion Mike Castellana. Although they left the line at the same time, Hagan was able to power by Castellana at the first shift to take the win. "Sure it's intimidating knowing you're lined up with the world champion," said Hagan. "It's definitely a test of your nerve, you can block it all out and just focus on what you're doing in your lane."

The second round tested Hagan's reaction time as he faced off against #2 qualifier Quain Stott. "I knew it was going to take a perfect pass from the car and a great light from me for us to have a shot against Quain," said Hagan. "His qualifying numbers were almost a tenth better than ours."

Hagan knew what it would take and he delivered, treeing Stott with a 0.037 reaction time to Stott's 0.090. It proved to be just enough to hold on to the win, with a margin of victory of only about 21 inches!

In the semifinals Hagan would finally run into some trouble. "Right now it looks like we had an oil line bust at the start," says Hagan. "We got in our own oil and the first 60 feet felt like we were skating on ice." Hagan crossed the center line trying to regain control of the car, and was disqualified. "It was pretty violent," recalls Matt. "I was doing everything I could to keep the car away from Mike [Janis]. I had to lift and watch him sail by me, it was the only safe thing to do."

"Overall it was a great weekend and we learned a lot," explains Matt. "These little maintenance issues are killing us right now, though." Hagan was eliminated at the NHRA O'Reilly Midsouth Nationals two weekends ago with a broken blower belt, making this weekend's loss due to equipment failure even more disappointing.

"It's tough to lose that way," says Matt. "We've just got to get a handle on the little things."

Photo courtesy of Roger Richards.