LE Tonglet vs. Underdahl in Gatornationals opening round

LE Tonglet did not improve his Friday qualifying run on Saturday and will start sixth on Sunday when the Tire Kingdom Gatornationals begins at Gainesville Raceway. 

The temperature was warmer than it was Friday and many of the elapsed times went up with it.  The Tonglet Racing/Nitro Fish Suzuki GSXR registered a best of 6.880 seconds at 196.27 mph.  Tonglet opens defense of his Full Throttle Drag Racing Series championship against Jim Underdahl (No. 11, 6.981 at 196.87).

“That’s not a bad place to be with the way qualifying started for us,” said Tonglet, who had quarter-mile laps of 6.921 and 6.907 seconds.  “We have a new tire and that has been hindering us, too.  The tire spun badly on our second run, but we should be able to get that sorted out on Sunday.

“We were only four-hundredths (of a second) slower than the best run of the last session.  We just missed the tune-up.”