Morgan Lucas Racing
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Oct. 31, 2007
POMONA, Calif. - The Lucas Oil NHRA Top Fuel racing team with driver, Morgan Lucas will be doing their best in securing the 23-year old driver his first professional win and it couldn’t happen in a better place than in the 43rd annual Auto Club NHRA Finals at Pomona Raceway in the backyard of Lucas Oil Products corporate headquarters, which is based in nearby Corona. POMONA, Calif. - The Lucas Oil NHRA Top Fuel racing team with driver, Morgan Lucas will be doing their best in securing the 23-year old driver his first professional win and it couldn’t happen in a better place than in the 43rd annual Auto Club NHRA Finals at Pomona Raceway in the backyard of Lucas Oil Products corporate headquarters, which is based in nearby Corona.
In his first full season at the helm of the dragster in 2004, Lucas worked his team into the position of reaching the final round and although the win didn’t come through at that moment, he still knows how to get down the competitive Pomona quarter-mile.
“Of all the races I’ve competed in, Pomona is the one place that stands out the most,” said Lucas. “I was 10-years old walking the pits with my father and I’ll never forget receiving the bent up front wheel of Darrell Russell’s Alcohol dragster and getting a ton of drivers to sign it. Memories like that just can’t be replaced and that’s just another reason that Pomona brings such a great fondness to me. Of course, it’s home for me and where I was raised. I will have a lot of family and friends there, so we certainly want to run well.”
The last two years in NHRA’s finale, Lucas was defeated in the quarterfinals by ironically, Melanie Troxel, who is now Lucas’ teammate, and, in addition, will be leaving for a career in Funny Car in 2008.
“My first year as a pro we went to the finals, but with Melanie on our team now, I hope I won’t have to race her until the end of the day. So maybe our luck will change and I have to say with the way we’re running, Sunday could be our day.”
Lucas has five final round appearances in his career and nothing would be sweeter for him that to get that first win in Pomona and he’s fully confident that his team can get it done.
“We’ve been running so well lately and our qualifying has improved immensely,” he said. “I feel we have as good of a shot as anybody at winning the race. We’ll just proceed forward and see what we can get.”
Lucas will be on KCAL-FM 96.7 ‘Morning Stiffy’ program on Friday, November 2, at 8:30 a.m.
The start of the 43rd annual Auto Club NHRA Finals begins at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona on Thursday, Nov. 1 with a lone nitro qualifying session starting at 2:30 p.m. (PDT). That will follow the same schedule on Friday, Nov. 2 with another pro session also at 2:30 p.m. Saturday's time trials start at 12:00 p.m. for the nitro classes followed by a second session at 3:30 p.m. The race starts promptly at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 4 (PST).
LUCAS OIL RACING DRIVER NOTES:
Morgan Lucas has five runner-up finishes, which the Brownsburg, Ind. driver reached in only his seventh (04 Las Vegas2), eighth (04 Pomona2), 10th (05 Phoenix), 20th (05 St. Louis) and 21st (05 Denver) starts. He finished fifth in the 2005 NHRA Top Fuel Point standings with 1,357 points after completing his first full season on the competitive 23-race NHRA circuit. He finished 11th in 2006.
Lucas' quickest elapsed time is 4.474 seconds, set on Feb. 12, 2005 at Pomona Raceway. He sped to his fastest top speed of 328.94 mph on May 29 in the first round of eliminations at the 2005 O’Reilly Summer Nationals in Topeka, Kansas. He has won two Technicoat low qualifier awards. His first on May 14 at the Atlanta Dragway recording a time 4.541 seconds and Oct. 22 on ‘The Strip’ at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway setting the pace with his run of 4.508 seconds. Morgan Lucas’ first Top Fuel event came behind the wheel of the Joe Amato-owned dragster at the 2004 Lucas Oil Nationals at the Brainerd (MN.) International Raceway on August 15, 2004. DOB: November 27, 1983.
TELEVISION ADVISORY
(ALL TIMES EASTERN – ALL PROGRAMS ON ESPN2 HD)
QUALIFYING HIGHLIGHTS
Saturday, November 3
10:00 P.M. – 12:00 P.M.
NHRA RACE DAY
Sunday, November 4
11:00 A.M. – 11:30 A.M.
FINAL ROUND COVERAGE
Sunday, November 4
7:00 P.M. – 10:00 P.M.
Encore Performance
Friday, November 9
4:00 A.M. – 6:00 A.M