FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Kevin Macvaugh
Bullish Racing Communications
(201) 342-8374
pr@bullishmotorracing.com
BULLISH QUALIFIES FIFTH, RACES TO FIRST ROUND AT NHRA DENVER
MORRISON, Colorado (June 15, 2005) – Bullish Motor Racing owner and driver Ara Arslanian qualified fifth with a six-second performance before facing a tough field of competitors at the 2nd Annual Mopar NHRA Mountain Madness Sport Compact Nationals, June 11-12. Hosted by the high-altitude Bandimere Speedway in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, the Bullish Racing crew worked throughout the event to meet the thin-air challenge that the legendary track presented.
Changes to the setup and tuning of the team’s StreetGlow-sponsored Solara allowed Arslanian to deliver a 6.958/198.26 performance during the first round of qualifying. Following the completion of the round, Arslanian stood third on the qualifying ladder. After a second round qualifying pass was negated by an inactive starting tree and an aborted third round attempt, the 6.95 would stand as Arslanian’s best official effort and slot him fifth in a tough full field of competitors. The resulting fourth and fifth slot elimination ladder pairing would end up pitting Arslanian against the series point’s leader, Matt Hartford, who had qualified with a 6.84/207, in the first round. While a win against Hartford would have enabled Arslanian to improve on his third place points position, an untimely red light start automatically handed Hartford the win and ended the weekend for the Bullish crew.
“The red light exit was really unfortunate,” said Arslanian. “Especially after the guys on the team still delivered a great car under the circumstances. Our second qualifying pass was quicker than our first, but it wasn’t counted because the car left the start line before the tree activated. My timing with the Bandimere tree was just out of sync this weekend. It’s inexcusable and as the driver I can’t blame anybody else – but this is part of what makes drag racing exciting and unique.”
While Arslanian and the team missed an opportunity to gain points on Hartford, an increase in the point’s deficit was limited after Hartford himself exited on a red light start in the following round. In addition, second point’s holder Steph Papadakis was also prevented from a points gain on Arslanian with his first round exit. The race was eventually won by competitor Brad Personett, who will likely leapfrog over Arslanian and Papadakis in the points chase.
“It wasn’t exactly the ideal outing, but we we’re able to gain a lot of much-needed track data during the weekend. With the new HKS 3.4L stroker engine and the twin-turbo setup, its all about track time and getting tuning data – and we’re making a lot of progress with the limited track time that we’ve had so far. We’re confident that we’re positioned for a charge to the top in the second half of the season. We’ve got five races in the NHRA and seven races in the NDRA to that.”
The Bandimere race wrapped up a three week road trip for the Bullish Racing team that took them from Kansas to Florida, and finally to Colorado. The upcoming one week break will allow the team to get in some rare non-competition track time and wrap up final preparations on the team’s new Bullish AEM Import Dragster.
“We’ll be spending some quality time on the Solara and the Import Dragster. Because of the risk, there’s a lot that you can’t touch during a race weekend. Those are the parts of the program and setup that we need to be working on and that’s what we’ll be doing the next two weeks. We’ll be ready for (NDRA) Rockingham.”
For more event information about the Mopar NHRA Mountain Madness Sport Compact Nationals, please visit www.nhrasportcompact.com. The event will be tape-delay broadcast on ESPN2, Thursday, June 30, 2 p.m. (Sunday, July 10, 2 a.m., repeat).
Editor’s Note: Members of the media interested in attending the event are encouraged to contact Kevin Macvaugh, Bullish Motor Racing, (201) 342-8374 or Seth Rubin, Alan Taylor Communications, (212) 714-1280.
About Bullish Motor Racing
Bullish Motor Racing, based in Hackensack, New Jersey, is a premier professional sport compact drag racing team competing in both the NHRA and NDRA sport compact drag racing series. Owner/driver Ara Arslanian competes in a tube-framed Toyota Solara powered by a 1,600 horsepower production-based, turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-6 engine. In the past three years, the team has amassed an unprecedented 4 championships with their third consecutive NDRA Championship coming last year. In addition to the national titles, the team also currently holds and has held quarter mile ET and MPH world records in the NHRA and the NDRA, as well as numerous track records. www.bullishmotorracing.com
About Street Glow, Inc.
StreetGlow® defined a new category in the automotive aftermarket with the introduction of Auto-Neon® and has since inspired a new generation of enthusiasts with its extensive line of performance lighting products. Their cutting-edge line of StreetGlow and OPTXR by StreetGlow branded products continues to drive new automotive lighting trends and showcase the popularity of this emergent category. Named to the prestigious Inc. 500 list of America's fastest growing private companies for four consecutive years, StreetGlow, Inc. is the number one choice in Auto-Neon and performance lighting products worldwide. For more information, visit www.streetglow.com or www.optxbystreetglow.com
Bullish Motor Racing 2005 Season Statistics
ABOUT OUR SPONSORS
Through our sponsors, team Bullish Motor Racing has been able to compete at the highest level of performance with the best resources and equipment. Bullish Motor Racing thanks all of our sponsors for their great support in making us a championship team.
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