After persistent rain showers washed out day one of qualifying for the NHRA Midwest Nationals near St. Louis, Alexis DeJoria and the DC Motorsports team entered Sunday’s elimination rounds at the third event of the NHRA Countdown starting from the No. 12 seed. DeJoria opened race day by powering to her best run of the weekend, but it wasn’t enough to outpace Daniel Wilkerson, ending her day early.
In the first round of qualifying on Saturday, DeJoria and her Bandero Café Toyota GR Supra were on a good-looking pass until her machine started hazing the tires near the top end of the race track. Like many nitro teams adapting to the brand-new World Wide Technology Raceway dragstrip race surface, the DC Motorsports team again ran into traction issues in the second and final qualifying round, placing them 12th on the Funny Car eliminations ladder. Against No. 5-qualified Wilkerson, DeJoria improved upon her weekend-best qualifying time of 4.074 seconds and took her GR Supra to the finish line stripe in 3.940 seconds, but it wasn’t enough to outrun her opponent’s 3.901-second pass.
“We were hoping to do a bit better this weekend here at World Wide Technology Raceway,” DeJoria said. “After a tough weekend in Charlotte, we kind of got behind, and then we came here, and Friday got washed out, so we were down to only two qualifying runs and we sort of struggled through those, too. Today in the first round, we made it to the end and ran a 3.94. Unfortunately, Daniel was a bit quicker and that was the end of our day, but we’re going to Dallas with high hopes because even though we lost first round, we made a good run so we’re glad to have something positive to end the weekend with.”
Up next for DeJoria is the Texas NHRA FallNationals, Oct. 11 – 13, where she will begin the weekend ranked 10th in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship point standings. DeJoria, a resident of Austin, will continue her pursuit of a seventh Top 10 finish when qualifying for the ‘Stampede of Speed’ kicks off at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis on Friday at 5:15 p.m. local time.
This story was originally published on September 30, 2024. 
