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POMONA, Calif. - Greg Anderson, a two-time winner of the Winternationals (2004, 2006), qualified No. 1 on the final Pro Stock ladder for the 47th annual NHRA CARQUEST Auto Parts Winternationals.
For Anderson, it was the 52nd No. 1 of his career and his third at the Winternationals. He earned two previous No. 1 positions in 2004 and 2006.
In the first of two sessions on Saturday, Anderson claimed the top slot by driving his KB Racing LLC / Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac GTO to a pass of 6.634 seconds, tying the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona track record held by his teammate Jason Line. He stopped the speed trap clocks at 209.04 mph, which is a track record and the first time a Pro Stock car has been over the 209 mile per hour barrier.
"I've had a great weekend so far," said Anderson. "I've had a ball this weekend. We have a lot of neat new things we brought to the track this weekend - a new car again, some new engines that's a new deal for us, the DRCE3 version of the GM engine.
"It took a lot of work over the winter. You never know what you have until you get here, until you get out here and run with the rest of these guys. It's a darn good feeling when you know you can run with them or a little ahead of them.
"I'm pretty happy right now. I'm proud of all my guys; they've done a fantastic job over the winter. That includes all the engine guys back home. (Our crew chief) Rob Downing has done a fantastic job. We lost Jeff Perley (who opened his own business) at the end of last season and it's hard to go on without a guy like that. He did a heck of a job for us. Rob has stepped up and shown he can handle it, along with the new talent we have on the team. the guys are doing a good job so far."
Both Anderson and Line, who qualified No. 3, are running the GM DRCE3 (third generation General Motors Drag Racing Competition Engine) in their Pontiacs this weekend. On Thursday, after qualifying No. 1, Anderson shared the following regarding the GM DRCE3:
"This is the first time we've raced with the DRCE3 between the frame rails," said Anderson. "We tested with another one in Las Vegas, things went pretty good, so we slid them in both Jason's and my car and they'll be in the rest of the weekend. We spent a lot of time over the winter building these engines. They're going to be good for us. We thought if we bit the bullet at the end of last year, and got them close to where we were with the other stuff (DRCE2) to start the season, then we'd have room to grow with them as the year moved forward. With the way the Countdown to the Championship sets up, you're going to need to peak at the end of the year and that's one of the things we looked at. The DRCE3 has a lot of potential and considering how we did on that first run, maybe we're going to be okay.
"The DRCE3 is a completely different block, it has completely different cylinder heads with different valve angles, and it's an entirely different deal. We've worked on the '2' for over 10 years now, there's still room to grow with it, but we thought with more of the things we'd like to do with the engine, the '3' gives us more capability. With the way the class is going with the high-revving RPM engines, we think we can run these engines a little higher, and that's why we elected to do it. You'll see more of the GM teams headed in that direction in the near future because the engine is that good."
As he goes after his 44th career win, Anderson will be matched against Richie Stevens in the opening round of eliminations. In the fourth and final qualifying session, Stevens jumped into the field at No. 16 with a run of 6.683 seconds at 206.83 mph.
Anderson Opens Season Qualifying No. 1
POMONA, Calif. - Greg Anderson, a two-time winner of the Winternationals (2004, 2006), qualified No. 1 on the final Pro Stock ladder for the 47th annual NHRA CARQUEST Auto Parts Winternationals.
For Anderson, it was the 52nd No. 1 of his career and his third at the Winternationals. He earned two previous No. 1 positions in 2004 and 2006.
In the first of two sessions on Saturday, Anderson claimed the top slot by driving his KB Racing LLC / Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac GTO to a pass of 6.634 seconds, tying the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona track record held by his teammate Jason Line. He stopped the speed trap clocks at 209.04 mph, which is a track record and the first time a Pro Stock car has been over the 209 mile per hour barrier.
"I've had a great weekend so far," said Anderson. "I've had a ball this weekend. We have a lot of neat new things we brought to the track this weekend - a new car again, some new engines that's a new deal for us, the DRCE3 version of the GM engine.
"It took a lot of work over the winter. You never know what you have until you get here, until you get out here and run with the rest of these guys. It's a darn good feeling when you know you can run with them or a little ahead of them.
"I'm pretty happy right now. I'm proud of all my guys; they've done a fantastic job over the winter. That includes all the engine guys back home. (Our crew chief) Rob Downing has done a fantastic job. We lost Jeff Perley (who opened his own business) at the end of last season and it's hard to go on without a guy like that. He did a heck of a job for us. Rob has stepped up and shown he can handle it, along with the new talent we have on the team. the guys are doing a good job so far."
Both Anderson and Line, who qualified No. 3, are running the GM DRCE3 (third generation General Motors Drag Racing Competition Engine) in their Pontiacs this weekend. On Thursday, after qualifying No. 1, Anderson shared the following regarding the GM DRCE3:
"This is the first time we've raced with the DRCE3 between the frame rails," said Anderson. "We tested with another one in Las Vegas, things went pretty good, so we slid them in both Jason's and my car and they'll be in the rest of the weekend. We spent a lot of time over the winter building these engines. They're going to be good for us. We thought if we bit the bullet at the end of last year, and got them close to where we were with the other stuff (DRCE2) to start the season, then we'd have room to grow with them as the year moved forward. With the way the Countdown to the Championship sets up, you're going to need to peak at the end of the year and that's one of the things we looked at. The DRCE3 has a lot of potential and considering how we did on that first run, maybe we're going to be okay.
"The DRCE3 is a completely different block, it has completely different cylinder heads with different valve angles, and it's an entirely different deal. We've worked on the '2' for over 10 years now, there's still room to grow with it, but we thought with more of the things we'd like to do with the engine, the '3' gives us more capability. With the way the class is going with the high-revving RPM engines, we think we can run these engines a little higher, and that's why we elected to do it. You'll see more of the GM teams headed in that direction in the near future because the engine is that good."
As he goes after his 44th career win, Anderson will be matched against Richie Stevens in the opening round of eliminations. In the fourth and final qualifying session, Stevens jumped into the field at No. 16 with a run of 6.683 seconds at 206.83 mph.
