Geoff Turk raced his Wild Turkey Engineering Dodge Challenger Drag Pak to his first Constant Aviation Factory Stock Showdown No. 1 qualifier Saturday at the Circle K NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway. Turk landed the top spot by being quickest each of the four qualifying sessions, improving with every pass. Turk’s last run of the evening, a solid 7.755-second pass at 180.43 mph, would ultimately earn him the No. 1 spot heading into race day.
“This place, zMAX, it’s like the Disneyland of drag racing. It’s a beautiful facility,” Turk said. “Track traction here for me is challenging, driving these crazy cars it’s challenging everywhere but today though, this track has been good. This car has been great. It’s actually the third race on that engine because I’m a one man show.”
This is the first event Constant Aviation Factory Stock Showdown has raced in the four-wide format. A task Turk admits, despite improving every run, was harder than he expected.
“Four-Wide racing has been way more of a challenge as a driver than I could have imagined. I’ve been drag racing for 42-years, but you don’t think about all the little things that are different,” Turk said. “You’re in the right lane and you see a car blow past you on the right, that’s not normal and then even up at the top end figuring out who exits first.”
Turk started qualifying on Friday with a 7.844-second pass then improved to 7.807 and jumped to a 7.803 Saturday before laying down his 7.755. Stephen Bell and his COPO Camaro qualified second with a 7.804-second pass at 176 mph.
Eliminations at the Circle K NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway for Constant Aviation Factory Stock Showdown will begin Sunday at 12:15 p.m. ET.
First Round Matchups:
First Quad
No. 1 Geoff Turk
No. 16 Jesse Alexandra
No. 8 Warren Walcher II
No. 9 Bill Skillman
Second Quad
No. 4 Mark Pawuk
No. 13 Daniel Condon
No. 5 Aaron Stanfield
No. 12 David Barton
Third Quad
No. 2 Stephen Bell
No. 15 Lenny Lottig
No. 7 Dave Davies II
No. 10 Ricky Hord
Fourth Quad
No. 3 David Janac
No. 14 Lee Hartman
No. 6 Scott Libersher
No. 11 Anthony Troyer
Elon Werner PR
