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Race 7
0f 15 / O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals
Madison, IL / June 23 - 25 2006
Madison, IL. - June 23 - 25 2006
With the
2006 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle season reaching the
halfway point, Team Tigue rider Craig Treble
reflects on the brutal first half by simply stating,
"We just need a bit of racing luck. The sooner, the
better."
Treble
and partner Harry Lartigue struggled in their first
"hot weather" race of the year, qualifying No. 13,
then bowing out in the second round of eliminations
in Madison.
"We had
just gotten to the point of having quite a bit of
confidence in our '06 tune-up, but when we applied
it in the conditions we saw this weekend, it let us
down."
Fighting
both the learning curve of the new 1500 cc engines,
and a race featuring eliminations run at night, the
Treble / Lartigue continued their "fast out of the
trailer" streak, and again opened qualifying with a
strong run.
Using
their quickest pass of the weekend, a 7.182 /
185.72, Team Tigue grabbed the No. 10 position, and
then slipped to 13th after four rounds of
qualifying.
"We felt
good pretty good going into the first round against
Antron Brown," said Treble. "I knew I would have to
be solid on the tree, and we figured we knew right
where we were on our tune-up."
The Team
Tigue bike looked impressive during the round one
win over the Army sponsored bike of Brown, running a
7.198 - 184.17 and earning lane choice for round
two.
“Again
we were fairly certain that we had a good setup,”
said Treble. “I figured I had to nail the reaction
time, and then let the bike do the rest.”
Treble
did his job on the tree, grabbing a huge reaction
time advantage over GT Tonglet, (.004 to .065), but
the bike slowed dramatically, only running a 7.290 -
181.86.
“Our
combination didn’t like the heat here in Madison,
and that surprised us. We tried to take our round
one pass and improve on it, but the weather changed
enough between rounds and that bit us. We may have
been a little too greedy.”
Although
Treble cites the need for some racing luck to come
their way, the Treble / Lartigue team has escaped
the recent controversy over the abundance of Red
Light foul starts this season from the Pro Stock
Bikes.
“We set
the bike up to work with the system that is in
place,” said Treble. “The fact is that now that the
Pro Stock Bikes are so competitive, you have to cut
a light or you are done for the day.
Now that
the fields are so tight, a No. 1 qualifier can be
gone right away if they miss the tree. Everyone
knows this and that has lead to more Red Lights than
before.
I think
we have been between .000 and .037 all year with no
Red Lights in eliminations. Like most racers,
fouling out on the starting line is enough to make
you puke, so I try to avoid it as much as we can.
I think
that if a team sets up for kill on the tree, or
attempts a ‘Hail Mary’ shot on the starting line,
then they are just asking for trouble and shouldn’t
be surprised to see the Red Light come on.”
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