National: Steve Harker Baytown event summary

Harker goes to Semi-Finals in Houston

Baytown, TX - This past weekend's O'Reilly Spring Nationals held at Houston Raceway Park proved to be an adrenalin packed weekend for the Harker Motorsport Team as Steve Harker drove his Chevy Monte Carlo Funny Car to a Semi-Final finish.

With only a one shot qualifier, Steve Harker laid down an impressive 5.54et at 259mph pass to take the number two position however Harker would end up missing the second session due to the quick turnaround time and a valve that needed replacing. Eventually being bumped to the number three spot after the second session and with the loss of the third session due to rain the field was set.

With first round eliminations being pushed into Saturday evening, Harker was given a bye run as Division Four opponent Ro Yale was unable to make the call. As the temperature dropped Harker made his solo run however was unable to make it down the track, lifting off the throttle just past half track as the car got out of the groove and close to the wall.

Facing off against Division Three Champion, Chris Foster in the second round, Harker was determined not to leave anything on the table for that Will Hanna tuned teamed to take advantage of. Being first off the start line, Harker powered on by Foster for the win with 5.59et at 258mph defeating Foster's 5.62et at 256mph.

Semi-Final match up of Harker and Tony Bartone was set to be a tough race for both teams as the number two and three qualifiers faced off for a spot in the final round. It would not be Harker's day as the car only went 10 feet before striking the tires and giving Harker the best seat in the house to watch on as Tony Bartone took the win light.

"We decided to change our program a little for this weekend's race and as it always goes we still have more testing to do to perfect this new program but I have a lot of confidence that once we get things sorted we will have a strong competitive car. My team did a great job as always and it was great to have our long time friends and mentors from Australia, Gary, Debbie and Cheyne Phillips helping out this weekend." Said Harker

The next race for Steve Harker and his Lucas Oil, Hedman Hedders, NGK Spark Plug Alcohol Funny car is the O'Reilly Summer Nationals in Topeka, KS May 21-23. The Harker team is definitely looking forward to the time off and who knows they may even get that dragster out to play at a race or two.

-source: harkermotorsport.com