COLUMBUS: Marc White wins event

Etterman Racing
White picks up Division 3 lead with Columbus win

KIRKERSVILLE, Ohio - NHRA Federal Mogul Funny Car driver Marc White made it two wins in a row after picking up a win during this past weekend's NHRA Division 3 Federal Mogul Drag Racing Series event at National Trail Raceway just outside of Columbus. The race was White's first divisional win of the year, and gave him the Division 3 points lead from defending Champ, Chuck Cheeseman.

White, from Glendale Heights, Ill., qualified the Etterman Racing 2001 Firebird second with a 5.897 second elapsed time at 243.28 mph. Raceday gave the racers just what they didn't want, hot air and track conditions, which slowed the team down considerably. However, White managed to work his way through the rounds. In round one, he took out Rick Krafft with a 6.025 at 241.97 mph, then took out Kim Fritts in a rematch of the St. Louis final.

The race ended in the same result, White winning with a 6.041 at 243.28 mph. His final round opponent, Cheeseman had the performance advantage going into the final, running consistent 5.90's all day. In the final, for the second time this year, White used a holeshot to defeat Cheeseman. White took a .455 to .507 (.400 is a perfect reaction time) starting line advantage and held on with a 6.015 at 240.68 mph to Cheeseman's quicker-but-later 5.966 at 241.97 mph to win by a mere .003 of a second (approximately 13 inches). The win put White 19 points ahead of Cheeseman in Division 3 standings.

"It was extremely hot, and the track temperature was extremely high," said White. "We just struggled trying to find a combination that would allow the car to run faster than 6.0's. Fortunately, that was enough to get the job done, but we need to make the car go faster in those types of conditions."

"We definitely need to try to step the car up," White continued. "We just need to analyze the data we got from the runs, and try to come up with a better combination. At the moment, we don't have a handle on the hot weather tune-up like we thought, but we'll get it."

White and his team are also excited about taking the momentum of winning their last two races into the final half of the Division 3 series.

"We still look at each race as a completely new deal," stated White. "It definitely helps to win those races, though. You pick up 85 points for a divisional win, and that helped us a lot in national points standings. We're back in first place even though we still have one more race than Chuck. We'll just keep doing like we always do, take it one round at a time."

For more information about the team, visit their website at EttermanRacing.com.

-ER-