It’s a bitter sweet Spring Nationals for WORLD Racing
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It’s a bitter sweet Spring Nationals for WORLD Racing
By Shane Tecklenburg
www.fastmotorsports.com
May 11, 2006
Englishtown, New Jersey – Chris Rado’s WORLD Racing Team and their Scion tC entered the NHRA Sport Compact Series Sony Xplod Spring Nationals with high hopes. They had run their career best ET of 7.87 seconds the week before at an event in Valdosta, Georgia and the team, which is sponsored by Scion, WORLD electronics, WORLD Motorsports, ACT, JE Pistons, Bosch, REV Valves and Klotz, had spent the week between making improvements to the car at their home base in Reading, Pennsylvania. Specifically, after the Valdosta race, it was discovered that the front wheels of the racecar were severely bent and was the likely cause of recent traction problems.
“I had been experiencing what I thought was tire shake in fourth and fifth gears,” explained Rado, 30 of Hollywood, California. “The guys kept telling me it’s not shaking the tires, so we figured that perhaps a wheel was out of balance. When we went to balance the wheels at my shop, we found that they were bent beyond repair. Luckily we had another pair at my shop so we mounted a new set of tires on them and came here to see what we could do.”
With new wheels and tires on the car, the team sat in the staging lanes on Saturday afternoon cautiously optimistic about their chances. As qualifying began, Rado and his team staged the car taking note of how smooth the burnout was. At the launch all seemed well until second gear where a moderate amount of tire shake set in. Rado quickly shifted the car to get through the shake but again felt shake in fourth gear. As he short shifted to fifth, the shaking didn’t stop so he let out of the throttle. Upon inspection by the team in the pits, it was discovered that the new wheels had also bent.
The run, a 9.04 at just 169 mph, placed Rado into the field for Sunday’s eliminations. Unfortunately, the team was out of spare rims for the front of the car. As such, the plan was to simply run the car through third gear in eliminations.
“We never say die on this team, so we figured we would stage the car, run through a few gears and see if the other guy red lit or did something else which would get us the win,” Rado said.
It was not to be. As Rado staged up in the first round of eliminations, the car rolled through the stage beam handing the team a red light which immediately disqualified them. Unaware of the red light, Rado stayed in the throttle through third gear like the team had planned and then put the parachute out.
Said Rado, “This is bittersweet for me. After all the trials and tribulations with this car over the past couple of years to be this close to making it run a number and having to give it up is a difficult thing. Without the dedication of Gary Kubo, Rob Miller, Kurt Siebels, Shane Tecklenburg and this week especially Eric Plebani we wouldn’t be as close as we are. Nevertheless, at some point, you just have to know when to fold’em, and right now we’re at that point with the old car. The fact is we have a new and improved race car that will be ready to debut in a few weeks and since it will take a few weeks just to get new wheels for the old car, we’ve decided to retire the old car, focus all of our efforts on the new ride and emerge even stronger in June. Lastly, I just want to again say thanks to all of our sponsors and the fans who support us this and every week. They’re the reason I am out here!”
www.fastmotorsports.com
May 11, 2006
Englishtown, New Jersey – Chris Rado’s WORLD Racing Team and their Scion tC entered the NHRA Sport Compact Series Sony Xplod Spring Nationals with high hopes. They had run their career best ET of 7.87 seconds the week before at an event in Valdosta, Georgia and the team, which is sponsored by Scion, WORLD electronics, WORLD Motorsports, ACT, JE Pistons, Bosch, REV Valves and Klotz, had spent the week between making improvements to the car at their home base in Reading, Pennsylvania. Specifically, after the Valdosta race, it was discovered that the front wheels of the racecar were severely bent and was the likely cause of recent traction problems.
“I had been experiencing what I thought was tire shake in fourth and fifth gears,” explained Rado, 30 of Hollywood, California. “The guys kept telling me it’s not shaking the tires, so we figured that perhaps a wheel was out of balance. When we went to balance the wheels at my shop, we found that they were bent beyond repair. Luckily we had another pair at my shop so we mounted a new set of tires on them and came here to see what we could do.”
With new wheels and tires on the car, the team sat in the staging lanes on Saturday afternoon cautiously optimistic about their chances. As qualifying began, Rado and his team staged the car taking note of how smooth the burnout was. At the launch all seemed well until second gear where a moderate amount of tire shake set in. Rado quickly shifted the car to get through the shake but again felt shake in fourth gear. As he short shifted to fifth, the shaking didn’t stop so he let out of the throttle. Upon inspection by the team in the pits, it was discovered that the new wheels had also bent.
The run, a 9.04 at just 169 mph, placed Rado into the field for Sunday’s eliminations. Unfortunately, the team was out of spare rims for the front of the car. As such, the plan was to simply run the car through third gear in eliminations.
“We never say die on this team, so we figured we would stage the car, run through a few gears and see if the other guy red lit or did something else which would get us the win,” Rado said.
It was not to be. As Rado staged up in the first round of eliminations, the car rolled through the stage beam handing the team a red light which immediately disqualified them. Unaware of the red light, Rado stayed in the throttle through third gear like the team had planned and then put the parachute out.
Said Rado, “This is bittersweet for me. After all the trials and tribulations with this car over the past couple of years to be this close to making it run a number and having to give it up is a difficult thing. Without the dedication of Gary Kubo, Rob Miller, Kurt Siebels, Shane Tecklenburg and this week especially Eric Plebani we wouldn’t be as close as we are. Nevertheless, at some point, you just have to know when to fold’em, and right now we’re at that point with the old car. The fact is we have a new and improved race car that will be ready to debut in a few weeks and since it will take a few weeks just to get new wheels for the old car, we’ve decided to retire the old car, focus all of our efforts on the new ride and emerge even stronger in June. Lastly, I just want to again say thanks to all of our sponsors and the fans who support us this and every week. They’re the reason I am out here!”
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From: Wilson Scion (IA)
I can't wait to see the new car on the track!
Good luck to the entire WORLD team. Those of you that I met down in Miami at Exposed 2.0 were all awesome guys and you deserve success in this sport. Keep it up and know that we all support you and your efforts!
Keep 'em fast and safe!
-Alex
Good luck to the entire WORLD team. Those of you that I met down in Miami at Exposed 2.0 were all awesome guys and you deserve success in this sport. Keep it up and know that we all support you and your efforts!
Keep 'em fast and safe!
-Alex
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