Mechanical issue for Line in Maple Grovie semi-finals

A “frozen” line-lock retarded Jason Line’s semi-final pass during today’s rain-delayed completion of the 28th annual NHRA Nationals, resulting in a hole-shot loss for the Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro pilot here at Maple Grove Raceway.

Jason Line

Photo by: Michael C. Johnson

“We had the car to beat again; this time it was just one of those things,” he explained. “The guys did a great job and gave me a good race car to drive. I haven’t had much mechanical failure in my time in racing; today it was just one of those times.

“You need to the line-lock to stage these cars, otherwise you’ll roll the beams, but it froze and we had 100 pounds of brake pressure on as we went down the race track. It freed up a little bit, but right after I left the stage, it stayed on.”

The Mooresville, N.C. resident opened the event with a 6.482-second pass at 213.64 miles per hour to defeat Shane Gray before rain halted Sunday’s racing. Line opened today’s activities by defeating teammate Ronnie Humphrey with a quarter-final pass of 6.527 seconds at a record speed of 214.35 miles per hour.

Eventual race winner V. Gaines ended Line’s quest to repeat as event champion using a .014-starting-line advantage to stay ahead of Line’s 6.502-second pass at 212.76 mph. Gaines’s margin of victory - .009 seconds.

“The Summit Camaro certainly ran fast enough to set the record, but not with the brakes on,” said Line, who holds the elapsed-time record of 6.477 seconds (set in the 2011 race here). “We could have used those points (20 bonus points for an E.T. record).”

Source: KB Racing