This past weekend in Maple Grove Raceway Kyle went for his second NHRA outing in the Leverich Top Fuel Dragster powered by MEW. Kyle had family and friends accompany him to his exciting matchups in Reading,PA and even had the MEW cat to assist trackside!
Here’s what you missed:
Qualifying round 1 Kyle had a solo pass with a .052 reaction time resulting in a 3.917 second pass. This pass hurt the motor a little and the team made a Motor swap which held them out of Qualifying round 2 friday.
Qualifying round 3 on saturday morning the team was ready to see Kyle back in the seat. Kyle lined up against the reigning Top Fuel Champion Antron Brown and had a .047 reaction time to Antron’s .068 however the tricky track was greasy and didnt hold what either car had for it. Both cars lost traction around 660ft resulting in a 4.481 second pass.
The team thrashed and got the car back in the staging lanes for the last qualifying run. Once again Kyle had a consistent reaction time when paired yet again with Antron Brown with a .066 RT running a 4.131 second run to 1000ft.
Gary Leverich and Crew Chief Dan Faries made a few changes knowing Sunday would be against Shawn Reid who was fresh back to the track after a horrible injury but was absolutely determined to make a statement he was back. Kyle was ready for him with a .076 reaction time maintaining his “first off the tree” status. They were neck and neck at half track when the crankshaft decided it couldn’t hold on anymore and let Shawn squeak by with his 3.8ET to Kyle’s 4.0ET.
Many lessons were learned this weekend and improvements made. Kyle and the Leverich team will carry this momentum to Texas next for the Texas Fall Nationals Oct 9-12th with the NHRA.
