Shane Tucker and the Auzmet/StructGlass Chevrolet Camaro made the most out of race day at the 50th annual Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals.
Starting from the No. 14 qualifying position, Tucker used exceptional reaction time skills to narrowly miss reaching the semifinals at the historic event, held at Gainesville Raceway. The veteran driver dispatched No. 3 qualifier Matt Hartford before losing to Kenny Delco in a close second round match-up.
“This was a great weekend overall,” said Tucker. “We missed some testing time and were working with a brand new motor program from Nick Ferri. From where we started to where we are huge is a huge leap forward. We are excited and it was a very successful race day for this Auzmet and StructGlass Chevrolet Camaro team.”
In the first round Tucker used a starting line reaction time advantage, .048 to .112, to hold off Hartford for the win. His winning time and speed, 6.593 seconds at 209.26 mph were enough to get the win by .04 seconds. The elapsed time and speed combo was also a season best for Tucker.
In the quarter finals, Tucker took another starting line advantage and nearly stole another win. The Australian was .032 versus Delco’s .075 and at the stripe Delco’s elapsed time of 6.555 seconds against Tucker’s 6.610 seconds gave him the win by about four feet at over 210 mph.
“The second round was so close. If I could have been a little quicker on the tree or the car could have run a little quicker who knows what could have happened. Rounds like that show you how competitive Pro Stock racing is. It is one of the toughest classes in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series for a reason.”
Tucker and the Auzmet/StructGlass Chevrolet Camaro will be back on the track in Las Vegas at the Denso Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in April 5-7.
– RTR Press Release
