Gainesville: Marc White preview

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Former Division 3 Federal Mogul Funny Car Champion Marc White will test his new 2001 Firebird during this weekend's Division 2 Federal Mogul Drag Racing Series opener in Gainesville, Florida.

The Glendale Heights, Ill., based driver plans to use the event as a test bed for the new 2001 rules for the class. White hopes by testing at an actual event, the team will learn more than an individual test session.

"Basically, we are looking at this race as our 'test mode,'" said White. "We didn't get a chance to do any testing out west. We have a brand new car, and with the rule changes, we need to make a few runs to figure the car out. We hope to go down there, work the new car bugs out, and get a handle on the blower overdrive change. Slow and easy, that's our goal."

"If we can run anything in the 5.80's we'll be tickled to death," White added. "We've seen that some guys have run some .60's, but they don't seem to consistently run them. It seems in everything we read that a lot of teams are having tireshake problems out west. If we can just get our car into the .80's, we'll be more than happy."

White hopes that a strong outing in Gainesville will give the Etterman Racing Team a run on the upcoming NHRA Division 3 (North Central Division) season.

"We've always been in the hunt for the Divisional points lead," White stated. "It will be a battle again with [Chuck] Cheeseman, so hopefully we can regain the No. 1 spot in Division 3."

"Our main goal is to win the Division 3 Championship," White continued. "We would also like to finish high in the top ten nationally, and if we can pick up a national event win or two, that would make a good year for us."

The Federal Mogul Funny Cars will have one qualifying session on Friday, with two more following on Saturday. Final eliminations will conclude the event on Sunday. Stay tuned to SummitRacing.com's Drag Race Central for day by day updates of the action from Gainesville.

- Will Hanna