Marc White wrap up

BRAINERD, Minn. - After coming into the event hot off of three straight wins, NHRA Federal Mogul Funny Car driver Marc White had his hopes for a fourth straight race end in the first round of this past weekend's Colonel's Truck Accessory Nationals in Brainerd, Minn. White noticed the car did not have oil pressure after the burnout, and shut the car off, giving the win to his opponent, Larry Bakke.

White, from Glendale Heights, Ill., looked like he might be able to make a bid for his fourth straight early on in the event. He qualified the Etterman Racing 2001 Firebird second with a strong 5.820 second pass at 245.54 mph. Coming into his first round matchup, White was heavily favored, as Bakke, the No. 9 qualifier, had only ran a 6.570 in qualifying. As White was backing up from his burnout, he noticed the car had no oil pressure. He attempted to stage the car, but rolled through the beams, handing Bakke the automatic win. After the run, the culprit was determined to be a faulty oil fitting that was sucking air into the oil system.

"Everything was going fine through qualifying," said White. "We were in a good position on the ladder, and pretty happy with the way the car was running. Unfortunately, backing up from the burnout, it lost oil pressure. A failure in a piece of the oil pump caused us the problem, and it had no oil pressure, so I shut if off. If I had run it, it definitely would have destroyed the motor, and possibly done more damage than that. It just isn't the thing to do, and you got to turn it off."

White and the Etterman team will have to put this race behind them, as they turn their focus on their next race, this weekend's Division 3 race in Bowling Green, Ky. Even with the loss, White feels comfortable knowing it is a minor problem that can be fixed easily for his next race.

"It's not like we have something where we don't know what happened," stated White. "We know exactly what happened, we know exactly what broke, it's not an expensive thing to fix, but unfortunately, happened at a very inopportune time."

"We'll go to Bowling Green, and put this race out of our heads," added White. "We're back just the way we were before we went to Brainerd. We know the car runs good, and if we do the right things, we'll end up being ok."

-EttermanRacing.com.