Championship Drag Racing

CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals
Joliet, IL
(June 8-11)

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David Baca Mach 1 Racing dragster

Chicago, Saturday: Top Fuel driver David Baca has qualified his Mach 1 Air Services dragster in the lofty No. 3 position in one of the quickest drag racing fields ever assembled. The native Californian took advantage of exceptionally cool temperatures to run the standing quarter-mile in 4.504 seconds at 331.69 mph, the fastest speed of the record-breaking weekend, to earn his best elimination day start of the '06 season.

"The Mach 1 car absolutely flew down the track," Baca said. "It will be hard to get this smile off my face. When you have a racecar like this your confidence goes way up and I wish we could start eliminations right now. I'm ready to race."

It was an exceptional effort for crew chief Rick Henkelman as Baca missed Friday's first session when his throttle cable broke before his opening pass. The team responded with a 4.59-second pass in the evening round but was a mediocre 12th overall.

Rain threatened to cancel both of Saturday's qualifying rounds but a window of opportunity allowed for one make-it-or-break-it session and Henkelman rose to the occasion and tuned Baca to his quickest and fastest run of the year.

"Rick's the man," Baca said. "We've had some terrible racing luck the last few events but he hasn't let up. None of my guys have. They all knew this was a big market race for Mach 1. We have the CEO Mike Entzminger out here this weekend and all the big clients from their Chicago hub so we want to show them a win.

"We also had our very own good luck charm, little Alex Dzimitowicz out with us. We need to have a good race for her."

Dzimitowicz was a special guest of Mach 1 and Baca this weekend. The 12-year-old from Chicago suffers from Muscular Dystrophy but is a huge racing fan. After being named an honorary crew person, she has become a die-hard Baca fan.

"I could list you a million reasons why it would be great to win," Baca said. "Bottom line, we need to go out there and get it done. We showed today we can run with the best of the best. Now we need to show we can win four rounds on Sunday."

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