Shawn Langdon earned a tough fought two round wins before dropping a cylinder and losing in the semifinals today at the Toyota Nationals in Las Vegas.
Langdon’s Global Electronic Technology team were strong in qualifying. They earned a bonus point in the Friday evening session and were seeded seventh after the end of qualifying on Saturday.
However, Langdon had anything but an easy draw in the first round as came up against defending Top Fuel champion Antron Brown. Langdon was ready and recorded the best reaction time of the class, an .039, to take the early advantage. He would take that advantage to the line as the Global Electronic Technology Toyota would also outrun Brown and give him his first opening round loss of the season.
The tough draw continued for Langdon in the second round as this time the Global Electronic Technology team faced points leader Steve Torrence. Langdon again moved first getting the jump on Torrence; Torrence was able to jump back ahead, but he quickly went into tire smoke. Langdon drove around and moved the semi-finals.
Unfortunately, Langdon’s second straight final round was not in the cards as the Global Electronic Technology Toyota dropped a cylinder very early on in the run which allowed Terry McMillen to score the round win.
Statistics:
Qualified: No. 7 (3.742 sec., 319.98 mph)
E1: Langdon defeated Brown – 3.739 sec., 319.07 mph to 3.742 sec., 325.92 mph
E2: Langdon defeated Torrence – 3.795 sec., 318.77 mph to 4.309 sec., 222.69 mph
E3: Langdon defeated by McMillen – 3.893 sec., 276.69 mph to 3.798 sec., 297.02 mph
Quotable: “I had a good day. To beat Antron Brown and Steve Torrence it shows you the amount of talent we have on this Global Electronic Technology Toyota. We just didn’t make a good run in the semi-finals and dropped a cylinder and lost to Terry McMillen. We have had a car that’s capable of winning the last two weeks, we’re just running out of time now. One more race before I start my Funny Car venture and we’ll try to make the best of it at Pomona.”
Point Standings: Eighth; leads Terry McMillen by six points for ninth, trails Clay Millican by 59 points for seventh.
Kalitta Motorsports PR/Photo Gary Nastase Photography
