Championship Drag Racing

O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals
Bristol, TN
(April 28-30)

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Mike Thomas Nitro Fish Wear Dodge Stratus R/T

Bristol, prerace: Crew chief Eddie Guarnaccia took matters into his own hands – literally – in preparing Kenny Koretsky’s Nitro Fish/Werner Enterprises Pro Stock Dodge Stratus race cars for this weekend’s O’Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway.

The veteran tuner and long-time Koretsky friend drove the Blue Dodge during two days of testing and came away pleased with the way the cars were running when the dust settled and the cars were sent to Bristol in time for Friday’s first qualifying runs.

“We spent a lot of time working on the cars, and, to me, when it was all said and done, I believe we learned a lot. I think we should run better this weekend,” said Guarnaccia, who drove the blue Nitro Fish car in the absence of driver Mike Thomas, a Knoxville, Tenn. businessman. Thomas will be competing at his “home” track along with teammate Dave Northrop, of Perkasie, Pa., will be at the controls of the red Nitro Fish/ISC Racers Tape Dodge

“Driving the car helped me understand what was going on the in the cars to make the changes,” continued Guarnaccia. “By the time we finished testing, both cars were running good elapsed times and speeds. We didn’t have the opportunity earlier in the season to do extensive testing.”

Thomas, who couldn’t attend the test session due to business demands in Knoxville, said he is “excited about racing in Bristol. I have a lot of fan support there. This is as close to home as NHRA POWERade Series gets for me. We’ ve had a disappointing start, but it looks like we are ready to turn things around. It comes at a very good time for me.

“I spoke to Eddie following the test session and he said the car ran really good. He was very optimistic about our chances.”

Thomas has missed qualifying for some races by mere thousandths of second this season. Northrop, who tested with Guarnaccia, is running a limited schedule this season. He made his debut in the Nitro Fish/ISC Racers Tape Dodge last month at Gainesville, Fla., and also came up a few thousandths short of the starting 16.

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