Topeka: Sergio Recio preview

TOPEKA, Kan. - On his last run, just three weeks ago, NHRA Federal Mogul Dragster driver Sergio Recio ran his career best elapsed time of 5.59 seconds in his semifinal loss to Shelly Howard during the Division 5 race at Heartland Park, in Topeka, Kan. With that run behind him, and new tuner Ora Vasquez, Recio hopes to make an impact on his competition during this weekend's Advance Auto Parts Nationals at Heartland Park.

Recio, from El Paso, Texas, was pleased with the career-best run, but is not content. Recio feels the 5.59 is just the threshold of what his Vasquez tuned Blown Alcohol Dragster can run.

"We're still going to make quite a few changes for this weekend even though we ran that .59," said Recio. "Mr. Vasquez is helping us work on this deal, and he feels that we can run low .50's or high .40's this weekend. That's what we are shooting for."

Recio feels that if he can step up to that performance level, he can be a contender against anyone.

"One of the problems we had the last time out was the motor was a little down on compression," explained Recio. "We're changing piston domes to get the compression back up. We feel since we ran that good with real low compression, we should be able to step up pretty good with more compression. We got a good car, and I'm confident we can run some good numbers this weekend."

The Federal Mogul Dragsters have two qualifying sessions on Friday, with the third qualifying session and first round of eliminations following on Saturday. Finals will be held on Sunday.

-HC