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MORRISON, Col. (July 21, 2013)— After qualifying in the No. 4 spot for the 34th annual Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Col., Team Patrón driver Alexis DeJoria was set to square off against friend and friendly rival Courtney Force in round one of eliminations. DeJoria and Force, the only two female Funny Car drivers competing in the 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, had a one-to-one 2013 race day record going into Sunday’s ‘Marquee Matchup.’
DeJoria’s impressive 4.122-second run from Q2 gave her the advantage of lane choice over No. 13 qualifier Force. Both women struggled with their reaction times and while the Patrón Toyota Camry made a full pull down the 1,000-foot stretch, it trailed Force’s flopper throughout the entire run. While obviously disappointed with how race day panned out for the black-and-green team, DeJoria is pleased with the newly configured car she was given this weekend.
“I’m disappointed with how the day ended for Team Patrón,” she said. “I was up against my friend Courtney, and it was ESPN’s ‘Marquee Matchup’ of the event. It was an important round for us. We needed those points today to better our chances of getting into the NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship ‘Top Ten’ list. We’re getting down to the wire here with just four chances left to secure a spot.”
“Today just wasn’t our day, unfortunately. Both of us had bad lights which I’m pretty mad at myself about because that’s not like me, but regardless, our car had a hole out on the step. It made it down the track, but she was ahead the whole time. The entire time I was tailing her, I kept hoping she would smoke the tires and I could drive around her, but that just didn’t happen. It was another short Sunday for Team Patrón, but we’re all looking forward to getting right back out there when we visit Sonoma. We ran a new chassis for the first time ever this weekend, and I think we’re all pretty pleased with the change. It’s very difficult to run good numbers here in Denver because of the altitude, so I’m very much looking forward to seeing what this hot rod can do next weekend in California.”
The team currently sits in the No. 12 spot on the NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship points list with 569 points. Their next opportunity to gain more points will be at the 26th annual NHRA Sonoma Nationals. For more information, please visit www.alexisdejoria.com. Follow us on Twitter: @ADR_Nitro771 and Like Us on Facebook: Alexis DeJoria.
TV Schedule
Eliminations
July 21, 6PM-9PM EST
ESPN2
About Alexis DeJoria
Alexis DeJoria, daughter of the famed John Paul DeJoria, co-founder of John Paul Mitchell Systems and proud owner of Tequila Patrόn, is a professional NHRA race car driver, competing in the nitro Funny Car class on the Kalitta Motorsports team. Alexis drives a Tequila Patrόn-sponsored 2013 Toyota Camry. Alexis, who had all the opportunity in the world to pursue any type of career, felt strongly about following her passion, and her need for adrenaline drove her to pursue the unlikely profession of auto-racing. The determination to ‘blaze her own trail’ continues to drive her and push her to higher levels in male dominated sport of drag racing.
About Kalitta Motorsports
Based in Ypsilanti, Mich., Kalitta Motorsports is a Top Fuel and Funny Car drag racing team in the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. The team was founded and is owned by drag racing icon Connie “the Bounty Hunter” Kalitta. For more than 50 years, Connie has been involved in the sport as a driver, tuner, and an owner. Kalitta Motorsports is one of the most successful teams in the history of auto racing with five world championships and over 50 national event titles in five different professional drag racing sanctioning bodies since it was established by Connie in 1959.