Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals
Pomona, Calif.
(February 5-10)

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Driver Profile

Jerry Toliver Canidae Pet Foods Chevy

Pomona, Sunday: A challenging weekend of drag racing at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series' season-opening 49th annual Kragen O'Reilly Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway continued yesterday as final eliminations were continuously interrupted after three days of rain during qualifications. Jerry Toliver in the Canidae/Lucas Oil Chevy Funny Car qualified 16th in the event's single qualifying session on Saturday and faced No. 1 qualifier Robert Hight in Sunday's first round. After more than four hours of rain delay and cooling temperatures, Toliver and Hight finally faced off with Hight getting the win light with an elapsed time of 4.159 seconds at 302.62 mph as Toliver's car lost traction and slowed to a 8.122 e.t. at 87.22 mph.

"It was an extremely difficult day," Toliver said. "With the conditions here, it's cold and the track is so tight, so if you're off on your tune-up a little bit, if you're too rich or you don't have enough clutch, whatever, the car is going to shake like that. It makes it difficult for drivers because the driver has to peddle it and hopes it hooks back up again. That time ours didn't, but that's just the way it goes. It wasn't ideal conditions, that's for sure, but my hat's off to NHRA for not stopping and keeping this thing going and trying to get this show done for the fans.

NHRA officials were able to complete only one round of eliminations before rain again interrupted action on the track. Racing is scheduled to continue today, weather permitting.

"We're very happy we qualified," Toliver said. "You have to understand, today was only my second lap in the Canidae car. I've got a lot of things, personally as a driver, that I have to get comfortable with. You bond with a car and you know where everything is, and I'm still searching for stuff and trying to get comfortable, but that just comes with laps and we need some more laps. We're not frustrated by any means. I'm happy, we learned some stuff and now we move on."

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