Shawn Langdon and the Global Electronic Technology Toyota Camry have three more races to chase down their first NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car championship. Langdon came up short in his bid to become the first Funny Car racer to sweep both zMAX Dragway events in a calendar year. Earlier this season he picked up his first Funny Car win at the Four-Wide Nationals.
He was also looking to start a Countdown win streak on the heels of his win two weeks ago in St. Louis. The bid fell short today during the rain delayed Carolina Nationals as he was eliminated in the first round by No. 7 qualifier Tim Wilkerson.
The team battled through some issues during qualifying but entered race day as the No. 10 qualified Funny Car with confidence that there was more improvement on race day. Unfortunately, weather rolled in on Sunday and persistent rain showers forced the teams to stay over an extra day and contest the final eliminations on Monday.
In the first round Langdon took a strong starting line advantage with a .045 second reaction time but just as his Global Electronic Technology Funny Car was accelerating to half-track it overpowered the race track allowing Wilkerson to shoot past him with a winning elapsed time of 3.898 seconds.
“It is tough to stay over and race on Monday but everyone has to do it when we get rained out,” said Langdon. “I just hate that we had a pretty good race car and I think we just overpowered it on that run. There were guys making killer runs but we just couldn’t stay hooked up. We have a tough road in front of us for these last three races but we will give it our all.”
Quotable:
Langdon on heading to Dallas: “I am glad we are going right back to another race. This was tough weekend in Charlotte and we are going to put it behind us and try and win these last three races.”
Statistics:
Qualified: No. 10 (3.970 sec., 326.00 mph)
Bonus points: 0
Race Details:
First Round
Driver Qual R/T ET MPH
Shawn Langdon 10 .045 5.386 137.25
Tim Wilkerson 7 .085 3.898 325.77 (W)
Team Kalitta PR
