Groovin' at the Grove

Photos by Ron Lewis

The K & N Filters NHRA Sport Compact Nationals were completed at Pennsylvania's Maple Grove Raceway, the fifth event of the NHRA Sport Compact season.

John Lingenfelter and the Ecotec GMC Sonoma powered to the Pro class finals, running 7.287 seconds at 186.90 mph and posting a runner up finish to second-time winner George Ioannou (below) who ran an elapsed time of 7.191 seconds at 190.03 mph.

"We are extremely happy with how the truck performed today," said Lingenfelter. "It's really too bad that we didn't get the win but we'll take that pass. We have some work to do during the month off but overall we're looking forward to the next race and hoping to further this team's performance."

In the Hot Rod class, Marty Ladwig and the Bothwell Motorsports team debuted the 2003 Pontiac Sunfire and advanced to the second round of eliminations after qualifying 12th.

JoJo Callos squared off against Angela Proudfoot in the finals of the Hot Rod class and Callos crossed the stripe running an elapsed time of 8.876 seconds at 160.46 mph to Proudfoot's slower elapsed time of 14.209 seconds at 87.73 mph as she ran into problems at about half-track.

In the Modifed class, Nelson Hoyos piloted the Ecotec Chevy Cavalier to a fourth place qualifying spot with an elapsed time of 8.733 seconds at 168.56 mph. Unfortunatley the Cavalier had trouble during the burnout in round one of eliminations and was pushed back behind the water to try again but couldn't get the car to move forward allowing Matt Hartford (below) a solo run.

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