After nabbing her first professional win for Carlyle Tools two weeks ago in Norwalk, Ohio, Top Fuel rookie Maddi Gordon was eager to add another piece of hardware to her NHRA trophy collection. Unfortunately, tire smoke thwarted her efforts in the opening round of competition today against one of her childhood heroes, Leah Pruett, at the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals.
Gordon started qualifying with a strong statement on Friday afternoon in front of packed grandstands at Sonoma Raceway. The California native made a blistering run of 3.751 seconds at 336.49 mph, the fourth-quickest of the session. An oil down prevented the Top Fuel category from completing the second qualifying opportunity on Friday night, which was a disappointment for Gordon, who had been looking forward to turning on the header flames in front of a hometown crowd. As qualifying continued on Saturday, Gordon faced Shawn Langdon in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, a rematch of her semifinal round in Ohio. Her 12,000-horsepower machine ran into tire smoke early and Langdon got the win. The tire smoke continued in the final round of qualifying but Gordon’s Friday pass put her in the top half of the ladder for eliminations.
Starting race day from the No. 6 spot, Gordon faced Pruett in NHRA’s “Marquee Matchup” under the Sonoma sun. 77% of fans participating in the popular game Drag Race Bracket Bonanza selected Gordon to win the first-round pairing. Gordon got the starting line advantage but hazed the tires before the halfway point, ceding the win to Pruett.
“The sport of drag racing should be called the sport of humbling,” remarked Gordon. “It has a way of humbling everyone. In drag racing, you’re going to lose a lot more than you’re going to win. That’s what makes winning so special. That Norwalk win was huge, but now we’ve got to keep looking forward. Unfortunately, that first-round loss was very tough. We struggled a little bit in qualifying. We were trying out some new things, but it didn’t work out the way we were hoping. Definitely pretty bummed, especially racing Leah. She was right in front of us in the points. So that stung a little bit extra. But the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror, so we’re just going to keep looking forward. Seattle is a beautiful place. It’s been really good to my family in the past, so we’re rolling in with good momentum there, and we’ll just try to do better.”
Gordon and the rest of the Ron Capps Motorsports organization will set their sights on next week’s competition as the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series heads to Seattle for the Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways, July 24-26.
