Englishtown: Powersports Racing final report

GEICO Powersports team advancing slowly towards season goals

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. (June 13) -- GEICO Powersports racers Morgan Lucas and Karen Stoffer managed to advance one round in Sunday's elimination action at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, leaving the two pros wishing that had gotten much more out of their weekends.

Lucas and Stoffer have been fighting uncooperative racing machines for the past few races and although both of them have been making progress with their respective hot rods, it's not coming fast enough for either racer.

The youngest professional in the nitro ranks at 26 years of age, Lucas advanced to the second round of Top Fuel with a solo pass after his first-round opponent, Morgan Lucas Racing teammate Shawn Langdon, had a malfunction at the starting line. Lucas smoked the tires a bit in that first-round run, clocking a 5.535-second lap at just 124.30 mph.

In the second round against Brandon Bernstein, Lucas got the jump at the starting line but his car lost traction around half track, allowing Bernstein to zip past and take the win with a 3.914 second run at 303.03 mph. Lucas crossed the line with a 5.048 at 146.51 mph.

"I feel like we're making progress, we just need to speed up the rate," Lucas said. "The car is telling us what it wants so we have to listen to it. Once we starting doing that, we'll be fine.

"We don't need to be thinking about points or making the Countdown right now, we just need to worry about getting this car down the racetrack."

Stoffer guided her GEICO Powersports Suzuki to a win over Angie Smith in the first round with a 6.942 second run at 188.75 mph, the second quickest lap of the session. Smith crossed the line in 7.028 at 186.12 mph.

She then faced Angie's husband Matt Smith, who avenged his wife's loss with a 6.978-second, 189.44-mph win. Stoffer had a perfect reaction time of .000 seconds but slowed to a 7.130 at 181.79 mph.

"We had a good first round pass," Stoffer said. "In second round, I had a good light, but I didn't do everything correct and it showed in the performance of the bike.

"The rider has to do her job and the team has to do their job, it's a package deal. Pretty soon we have to get it all together. We're an experienced team and we feel like we shouldn't have to be going through all of these growing pains."

Next on the schedule for Lucas is the June 18-20 NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn. Stoffer doesn't hit the track again until the June 24-27 Summitt Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio.

-source: powersports