Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Tulsa Raceway Park - Tulsa, OK

June 6, 2006 - Rockdale, TX - New Breed Racing, Alesi and Ayrton Gerthe, attended the final stop of the “triple double” Division 4 Mr. Gasket Pro-Am Tour held at Tulsa Raceway Park, June 2-4, 2006.

After the event, Lisa said, “We struggled with the cars and their consistency all weekend and thought we had a handle on them, but it appears we need to continue to make adjustments. Alesi and Ayrton made their adjustments at the tree and had really good lights over the weekend.”

Alesi went out first round Saturday when she went .495 red, while Ayrton went out in round two. Duane said, “The cars were just not running as they should have and we made adjustments and checked things over on Saturday night, but apparently we are still missing something that causes the cars to stumble when they leave the line and it always happens at the wrong time.”

On Sunday, the team talked about the race Saturday and evaluated their cars. “Our goal was to come here and chase the points, but after our performance on Saturday that was no longer a possibility, so we focused on winning the event on Sunday,” said Lisa. First round Sunday, Ayrton went red and Alesi made her way through the pack of 22 master’s cars and down to the final three cars. Alesi said, “My car was running good all day and I was hitting the tree and in the semi’s ‘Blackie’ decided to throw me a curve and stumbled really bad off the line and I knew it was over, but I hung in there hoping my competitor would break out, but that didn’t happen and I crossed the finish line way off my dial.”

With the divisionals behind them, the team will test and prepare for the remainder of the year and plan to attend select IHRA Ironman Classics in the area, while Alesi gains more seat time in her big dragster. The team will travel to Arkansas this weekend and attend the 2nd Annual Jr. Spring Nationals at Prescott Raceway, with races to include the Southwest 330 Outlaw, Southwest 330 Quick 32 and All Run Bracket Races.

Hoosier Thunder Motorsports team owners Terry and Rhonda McMillen, through the IHRA Adopt A Jr. Dragster Program, sponsor the IHRA Division 4 Junior Dragster Team from San Antonio Raceway, along with Amalie Oil, TORCO Racing Fuels, C. Trade Group, Flatout Gaskets and NGK Spark Plugs.