Since switching race cars three races ago, Greg Anderson and the Summit Racing team have worked to learn this particular Pontiac’s performance envelope, with qualifying for this weekend’s AAA Insurance Midwest Nationals in Madison, IL providing a perfect example of the challenge involved.
After opening with a less-than-satisfactory pass on Friday afternoon, the KB Racing crew made steady improvements throughout their final three attempts, posting one of the quickest times in each session, with their best effort of 6.660-seconds, 207.75 mph on Saturday morning earning the Mooresville, NC based driver the sixth starting position for Sunday’s final eliminations at Gateway International Raceway.
“We’re definitely getting closer to where we need to be with my Summit Racing Pontiac,” said Anderson. “As with everything else in this sport, switching cars is a learning experience. We’ve already found out a lot in the last few weeks, with the first thing being that there is a difference in these two chassis that makes them respond differently. Unfortunately that means we can’t translate everything we’ve gathered from my car directly to Jason’s without some work.
“The good news is that I have a decent hot rod again, one that I can race with tomorrow. In fact, I think if we get a little more aggressive with the tune-up, it can run fast. We’ve been afraid to do that with our other cars because they would shake the tires, but it appears we can do that with this particular car. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
However, Anderson’s positive feelings about his performance were tempered by the fact that his teammate Jason Line in the second Summit Racing Pontiac would not be racing on Sunday for the first time in his career, snapping an NHRA-record 150-race streak.
“I certainly feel bad that Jason didn’t make the show,” said Anderson. “After all, I have always taken as much pleasure in his success as I have in mine. We had tested both his and Ronnie’s (Anderson brother-in-law Humphrey, who is leasing a KB Racing car and motor) cars over the past two weeks, and felt we had made progress, but we obviously still have a way to go.
“Apparently there is something in our tune-up that makes those race cars extremely finicky. We haven’t quite pinpointed it yet, but we are going to. After all, there are others who are doing just fine with that particular chassis, so we know it’s not the race car. The car is trying to tell us what it needs, and we have to listen and figure out exactly what it is. Trust me, we’ll keep working at it until we do.”
