Jeff Bohr Indy ORP summary

Bohr scores runner-up in Indy

CLERMONT, Ind. - NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster driver Jeff Bohr and his Bar's Leaks sponsored team scored a runner-up finish during this past weekend's Division 3 event at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. After running strong numbers in qualifying, Bohr relied on his driving experience to navigate the tricky hot track on Sunday.

Bohr, from Plymouth, Mich., qualified the team's blown alcohol dragster, which is tuned by him and his brother Gary Bohr, third in the field with a 5.394 second elapsed time at 268.28 mph. Bohr's first round opponent Paul Fishburn redlighted, giving him the automatic win while he coasted to an early-shutoff 7.909 at 119.18 mph. Bohr then had a wild match up with the No. 2 qualifier Ken Perry in the semifinals. Perry exploded an engine off the starting line, but that was unknown to Bohr. Bohr started smoking the tires just off the starting line, but pedaled the car several times to get it down track to a 6.674 at 236.34 mph.

In the final, Bohr squared off with No. 4 qualifier Marty Thacker. Both drivers left together with nearly identical reaction times, however Bohr once again launched into the dreaded tireshake, giving the win to Thacker who went on to run a 5.441 at 267.37 mph to Bohr's shutoff 9.691 at 98.07 mph.

"It was ugly, but we got to the final," said Bohr. "The car ran real well in qualifying. We hurt a cylinder head during the Friday qualifying session and was going to sit out until Sunday to save parts. Ethan Brown from Ray Hack's team found out we needed another cylinder head and drove back to his shop and brought us a cylinder head. We came out Saturday morning and there was a cylinder head laying on the steps to our trailer. We really can't thank those guys enough for their generosity and help."

"On Sunday, it was a bit warmer than qualifying, and we really fought the car wanting to shake the tires in the middle of low gear," Bohr continued. "It was a pretty wild run in the semi's against Perry. I didn't know he had broke, but I figured he was coming. I just kept shifting gears hoping it would calm down. Perry had just ran that .32 in the first round, which was plenty stout, so we figured we would have to run a good number to beat him and the track just didn't hold. We would have loved to had an all Bar's Leaks-Rislone final with Bill Reichert, but it just didn't work out that way, and unfortunately, we had more problems in the final. All in all, it was a good weekend, and we were able to go some rounds for Bar's Leaks."

-credit: barsleaks