Ennis, Texas – Cinderella has nothing on Kristen Wootton. And the clock has just begun on a promising drag racing career.
Racing in her second drag racing start, the rookie driver of the Wootton Racing/Mettle Armor Racing Oil A/Fuel Dragster has captured her first NHRA Wally in a very competitive field of Top Alcohol Dragsters at the Division 4 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event contested this weekend in Ennis, Texas at the Texas Motorplex.
Wootton, from Magnolia, Texas entered eliminations having qualified in the 7th qualified position after her 5.62 second elapsed time recorded in the first session on Friday. This set up a first round match up against Michael Manners from Willis, Texas in his Shane Conway tuned Spitzer chassis A/Fuel Dragster. At the flash of the green, Manners captured a slight hole shot advantage but went up in smoke, while Wootton sped to a career best elapsed time of 5.348 at a career best speed of over 267 mph earning her first round win.
Wootton then advanced to the semi-finals, where she paired up against Malcomb Wahle. The two A/Fuel Dragsters left the starting line with each car grabbing a lead at each incremental. When they crossed the finish line 1,320 feet from the starting line, Wootton was the victor by less than 2 inches. Her 5.373 ET was just enough to beat Wahle's 5.384. The margin of victory was 0.0005 seconds. In the final round the 32-year old mother of two faced Monroe Guest driving the Scott Johnson and Todd Odem tuned Tigerflow sponsored A/Fuel Dragster out of Mannford, OK.
Guest did his job on the starting line, grabbing a starting line advantage of nearly 0.030 seconds, however the Joe Monden tuned, METTLE ARMOR Racing Oil Sponsored A/Fuel Dragster saved their best effort for last as Wootton chased Guest down, recording another career best elapsed time of 5.336 seconds en route to claiming her first NHRA Wally.
"I simply can't believe it, I won a race today," noted Wootton. "I am so happy for our team, our sponsor our friends and family who were here to support me all weekend long. I just wish my kids were here to share this victory with me today. This car is so easy to drive because of the way Joe Monden tunes it. He had it set on kill today because the conditions were ripe for our Mettle Armor A/Fuel Dragster to run hot, straight and normal. The best part is we broke no parts. I hate to use this cliché but it hasn't hit me quite yet. I am so humbled to hold this beautiful trophy. Hopefully it's the beginning of better things. I've got lots of room on my trophy shelf."
To learn more about Kristen Wootton, please visit her team page at http://www.crxmedia.com. To learn more about her marketing partner visit http://www.cleanboostoil.com.
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