Pomona Pete Swayne Wrap Up

Pete Swayne Enjoys A Successful Return To Action In Pomona With Cooner Wire Company Support.



Pete Swayne hasn't run an NHRA National Event in almost 4 years, but you wouldn't know it if you were witness to the events that took place at the Carquest Auto Parts WINTERNATIONAL'S. Pete ran an impressive string of mid 5.60 runs and an equally impressive string of strong reaction times to advance to the semi finals.

"He surprised me," said Randy Goodwin. "His first pass looked like he was never out of the seat. We knew he had big boots to fill following Larry Miner as the driver of our car. But every run he just got stronger. And trust me, Larry's boots were big."

Pete ran a great 5.65 at 252 miles per hour in the second session of qualifying which was low et for the round, placing him number 2 in the strong field of funny cars. The team elected to sit out the third session in order to focus on eliminations and to prepare the car for going rounds.

Considering the goals set for the weekend, Goodwin decided to play it safe on the tune up during eliminations and it paid off. Pete advanced to the final four after defeating John Weaver in the Meer Capital Partners team machine in round one and Steve Gasparrelli in round two with another great 5.65. Against Jay Payne in round three, Pete had the advantage of lane choice because of his quicker et in the previous round. Pete was pretty pumped up and a little too anxious, though, as he left the starting line too soon turning on the red light. Jay won the round with a 5.76 while Pete could only watch his chances of winning go up in smoke.

"I figured this weekend was going to be an opportunity for Pete to get back in the car and just have some fun," said Randy. "But after qualifying well and advancing round after round I started thinking we might just pull off a victory here."

Several teams offered their congratulations for a fine showing by Pete. Part of the weekends success was an experiment that took placed during the Winter down time. The team took the car back to the chassis builder and made some major changes to the car to suit Pete's driving style. The success of those changes was immediately evident. "A semi final finish in today's day and age with several great teams to compete against in Top Alcohol Funny Car is a real testiment to the team we have assembled and Pete's ability as a driver," said Goodwin. "To get a pat on the back from the people we race against means a lot to us."

Follow the team at www.randygoodwinracing.com