BRISTOL, Tenn. (June 20) -- After a first half of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season mostly filled with struggles, Lucas Oil drivers Shawn Langdon and Larry Morgan believe they are back on even ground with the sport's elite.
Of the two, Langdon's Lucas Oil/Speedco Top Fuel dragster had a better weekend in eastern Tennessee. He beat Terry McMillen in the first round of Sunday's 10th annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals before falling in the second round to No. 1 qualifier Antron Brown.
"We've got a good car," Langdon said. "We're running good in the heat. After the last couple of races where we had bad luck, we seem to have gotten it all out of our system by now."
In the first round, Langdon was actually beaten off the line -- a rare feat this year. However McMillen's .011-second advantage at the line didn't matter much as Langdon made like a lightning bolt, getting to the finish line in 3.975 seconds at 297.88 mph. McMillen crossed in 4.026 seconds at 295.46 mph.
In the second round, Brown made the fastest lap of the session, going down the track in 3.952 seconds at 297.55 mph. Langdon had an identical reaction time to Brown but was a few ticks slower at the other end, crossing the line with a 3.980 pass at 292.33 mph.
"We made a heck of a run in the first round," Langdon said. "We made a great run in the second round too, but just lost a good drag race. You are going to win races like that and lose races like that.
"The biggest part is we didn't beat ourselves. We just lost to a great race car."
For Morgan and the Lucas Oil/Summit Ford Mustang Pro Stock car, making eliminations for the second straight week was a victory in and of itself. He suffered a close first round loss to Ron Krisher.
Krisher ran a 6.739 at 205.38 mph to Morgan 6.784 at 203.22. After not burning up any engine parts in the last two races, Morgan admitted he broke a valve spring during the run.
"We probably broke it on the burnout," Morgan said. "So we probably lost .002 or .003 on the track. It could have been a race. But, just getting this Lucas Oil Ford into the field was great. We'd had so many problems with parts failures -- we're just excited we haven't blown anything up.
"We'll be fine. We just need a little race day luck at this point."
Perhaps some home cooking will help Morgan turn his luck around. The next NHRA event is the June 25-27 Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, which is a little more than an hour's drive from Morgan's home base.
