Straight Talk

By Bruce Biegler
PRN Drag Racing Editor

Dynamic Duo

Hats off to the determined Canadian Nitro Funny Car partnership of John Rossitter and Bob Elliott for an excellent comeback performance during the NHRA Springnationals!

Canada’s newest Nitro Funny Car team shrugged off its unfortunate body-pitching debut at Gainesville last March by rebounding to record the quickest and fastest runs ever for a drag racing machine based on Canadian soil.

Driver Bob Elliott guided Rossitter’s Northern Force Dodge Daytona to a dramatic “shutoff” 5.311 secs. at 259.44 mph to qualify 10th in Columbus’s very tough FC field (5.42 secs. bump).

Elliott then backed that run up with a similar but faster 5.331 secs. at 274.72 mph during Round 1 of eliminations. But that run, which was destined to earn the teams first winlight, was wasted by a redlight, a direct result of the lack of seat time in a Nitro car for skilled driver Elliott.

“On the 5.31 I clicked it a little early,” confided Elliott. “Coming into the cones I just felt that was enough for me and the car. We just aren’t into backdooring the car just yet. The computer showed I clicked it 4/100ths of a second early – so that would affect that ET by 2 or 3/100ths and the speed by 15 or 20 mph.

“We’re pretty happy with the way the car performed here. On the first half of the track we ran 3.5 secs. at 227 mph which is stout for the class. The 60 foot times were around .950 which is as good as Etchells and the other upper level cars we’re running. Im especially happy to come away from the race with no oil dripping onto the race track – that makes this event a success as far as Im concerned.”

For car owner Rossitter the cars performance was the payback he had been looking for. “When the 5.31 finished I was very pumped,” he said. “We knew the car had the potential for 30s or 20s. We’ve passed our first big test and we learned a lot. Ken Veney has given us the guidance we needed and Im confident we’ll get even better.”