After a late start to the 2015 racing season, things are really starting to heat up! After taking home our first win of 2015 at the NHRA Lucas Oil Series event in Topeka, KS a few weeks ago, we have really gotten on a roll. The next stop on tour was a successful one at the Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, MN. Having won the event the past two years, we had a great deal of confidence coming in. We took home a class title in Stock Eliminator with our supercharged COPO Camaro and made it to our third straight final in Comp Eliminator. Unfortunately, in the final we were on the losing end of a great race, losing the title by a mere 7 one thousandths of a second.
Heading into the Chevrolet Performance US Nationals, we decided to leave our turbo cars at home and focus our attention on our COPO Camaro and the Factory Stock Showdown and Stock Eliminator titles that were up for grabs. After qualifying 7th in a field of 190 cars, we knew we were off to a good start. After making our way through 3 rounds of tough competition, we found our way into the finals of the Factory Stock Showdown on Friday night. We came up short against defending Champ Chris Holbrook, but came away with some positive momentum heading into the main event. After wading through 7 rounds of eliminations against the best competition in the country, I’m proud to say that we ended the day as US Nationals Champions! Not only was it our first US Nationals title, but the first National event victory for the COPO Camaros as well.
With five events to go, we have a shot at obtaining numerous season ending goals. We’re currently front runners for what would be our 6th NHRA Lucas Oil Divisional series title (in the past seven years) in Comp eliminator, with an outside shot at our 3rd NHRA World Title. Another goal was a Top Ten finish in both Comp and Stock eliminator and that goal is also still within reach!
Off the track…if you get a chance, tune into one or both of the shows I’m currently hosting on Velocity. “Garage Squad” airs in primetime on Friday evenings and “TruckU” airs on both Saturday and Sunday mornings.
I’ll also be joining the ESPN2 NHRA broadcast team at the last two Mellow Yellow series events of 2014, in Las Vegas, NV and Pomona, CA.
Thank you for your continued support and wish us luck as we finish out another great year on the track.
Sincerely,
Bruno Massel