Lee Hartman raced to his second consecutive Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown No. 1 qualifier at the NAPA NHRA Midwest Nationals as qualifying concluded at the penultimate national event of the season. Hartman reset the national elapsed time record for the second race in a row. His record setting 7.548-second pass at 182.30 mph came in the second qualifying session which was also the semifinal round of the rain delayed NHRA Great Lakes Nationals. The previous record was 7.558-seconds. Hartman lowered the record even more in the final qualifying session running 5.511 seconds and he will face Kim Shirley in the first round of eliminations
This was Hartman’s sixth career No. 1 qualifier. Following him in the qualifying order will be Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown championship contender Raymond Nash who slightly closed the gap on point leader Jonathan Allegrucci, the No. 5 qualifier.
“Before we ran, we knew the weather was a little bit better than yesterday,” said Hartman. “We talked about it in the trailer. We were worried about whether it was going to shake the tires. In Q1, we went out there and it shook the tires. Going into Q2 we said let’s make sure this thing doesn’t shake the tires. We still had to lean on it to make sure we win the round and put up a good time. That’s exactly what we did.”
Hartman’s performance over the weekend was nothing short of impressive. In back-to-back runs he lowered the elapsed time national record and won two rounds of eliminations. Hartman had nothing but compliments about how his Stanfield Racing Engines powered Dodge Challenger has been running, going from qualifying into eliminations.
“The car’s running good,” said Hartman. “We shouldn’t have to change anything, and I think we’re in a good place. My attitude is let’s see how the next four rounds play out.”
Two more drivers looking to chase down Allegrucci for the Flexjet Factory Stock championship, Scott Libersher and David Janac, will head into eliminations as the No. 3 and No. 13 qualifiers, respectively. Heading into eliminations Allegrucci controls his own destiny on the way to possibly clinching his first Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown Series world championship.No. 1 qualifier Hartman, the Great Lakes Nationals winner, will carry the $1,000 Flexjet Bounty into the first round of eliminations. Shirley will have the first opportunity to try and outrun them and collect the cash prize.
The first round of eliminations at the Napa NHRA Midwest Nationals will begin Saturday afternoon with two rounds of eliminations for 16-car qualified field. The semifinals and finals will be held on Sunday and fans can follow the racing action at www.nhra.com.
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