After strong qualifying effort, weather and clutch set-up conspire to knock Pittman out in first round
NORWALK, Ohio - Heading into this past weekend’s Skull Shine World Nationals at Ohio’s Norwalk Raceway Park, South Carolina-based Pro Modified competitor Alan Pittman felt that he had an excellent chance of qualifying well and picking up some round wins. He, his crew, and engine builder Carl Spiering had spent a great deal of time tweaking the systems on the team’s unique 1962 Chevrolet “bubble top,” and it was time to put theory into practice.
On Friday, Pittman kicked off his run at the 16-car field with a pass of 6.192-seconds at 225.90 mph. He backed it up with a mark of 6.163, 228.19 during Saturday’s first session, a number good enough to lead the 42 teams assembled in Ohio into the third and final qualifier on Saturday night. Pittman wrapped up two days of preliminaries with an effort of 6.199, 220.66, wounding an engine in the process. He finished in the No. 5 spot heading into Sunday’s elimination rounds.
All-night rains postponed the start of the final day of racing, and Pittman and his Pro Mod counterparts finally took to the track well after 4 PM. His first-round opponent was No. 13 qualifier Danny Rowe, who went on to take the win, 6.175, 227.54 to 6.305, 212.06, when Pittman’s car, now running with the back-up engine in place, struggled for the first time all weekend.
Despite his early exit, however, Pittman wasn’t overly disappointed, believing he and his guys were on the right track. “After the last race we really felt like we had our problems straightened out, and I think we proved this weekend that we did,” he said. “We had sub-zero sixty-foot times every time we left, and ran good elapsed times. We torched a head on Saturday night, and still ran a six-nineteen. A lot of people would kill for that kind of performance, you know?
“We put our spare motor in the car for eliminations, and stayed with the same set-up we had in the car on Saturday night,” he said. “On Sunday, after all the rain, the track was twice as good as it had been earlier in the weekend. We just missed the clutch set-up. I hate to blame it on the clutch again, but it’s our number one enemy. If it isn’t right you’re not going anywhere.
“We’re still happy, though – we’ve got a hot rod, and we’ll go up to New Hampshire in two weeks and see what we can do.”
Pittman’s next race will be the Amalie Oil North American Nationals presented by New England Dodge Dealers, September 8 – 10, 2006, New England Dragway, Epping, NH.
