With victories in two of the last five races of the 2010 NHRA season, Cruz Pedregon is hoping to build on that year-end success heading into the season-opening race, the NHRA Winternationals, Feb. 24-27 at the Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, CA.
“We went testing in West Palm Beach two weekends ago, our first time on the track in 2011 and it was great,” said Pedregon. “On our first pass, we didn’t have the right tune-up and shook the tires. Our second pass was only supposed to be to half-track, but it felt so good, so I said forget about it and right when I hit the chutes, I thought, either I haven’t been in this car for a while or we just made a really good run. I’m really excited because this year our car will be right at the weight limit, 40 to 50 pounds lighter than our cars last year and we even have new Toyota bodies. Those are the things we feel we have to do to increase our chances of winning.”
The Snap-on Funny Car’s crew chief, Danny DeGennaro, echoed Pedregon’s thoughts about the car as well as the Snap-on Funny Car’s chances entering the 2011 campaign.
“Preseason testing went very well this year,” said DeGennaro. “The first day of testing was to shake the car down. It went so well that we were able to run quick laps right out of the box. As it turns out, our best lap was amongst the quickest that anybody made in testing. The Saturday of testing, we decided to try some different components on the race car. We were able to gain a lot of useful data from our test session. Now we look forward to the first race in Pomona. Our confidence is high. We intend to begin this season running the way we finished last season.”
As part of race week activities, Pedregon will go on a Snap-on “ride-along” with Ontario, CA-based Snap-on franchisee Enrique Garcia. Pedregon will visit with Garcia’s customers as well as sign autographs and give away tickets to the weekend’s race.
To learn more about Snap-on tools and its racing program, visit www.snapon.com/racing.