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Romine
Racing News
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SMOKIN'!
Mike Romine's round one eliminations burnout.
Bottom line: It’s just tough to do well at your home track. The pressure’s incredible with family, friends, customers and all of that “local boy” attention. Then there’s the fact that you never get to race at your home track if you follow that national circuit. Excuses? Maybe. Reality? Definitely.
In qualifying, Mike Romine struggled. (Compared to the year he’s had by this half way point.) He broke a transmission in round one. Round two wasn’t too much better, but he sat in the eighth spot. Round three, Saturday morning he jumped to fifth and a decent 6.69 at 198 miles per hour. The final round in the Night of Fire at the IHRA Northern Nationals, Romine improved to a 6.63 at 200 to settle in at sixth as others stepped up during the round as well.
Round one eliminations was not kind to Romine. The air was thick and tuning was a challenge. But Romine went for it with a great reaction time at .446 to the competition’s .511. “It left real good then about the 330 foot mark it hit that bump that’s been ground off the track that’s magically appeared. It spun the tire real bad and the front cylinder went out, according to the computer. It didn’t spin the tire at all at the starting line and that was our major concern before the run. The motor revved up at the 330. I went to shift it and it went to running on one cylinder before I could catch it. Everything’s OK. No damage. As much fuel as we run through them and as terrible as the air is, you have to keep them loaded. If it spins, it unloads the engine. That makes for a 7.96 pass at 170 and that doesn’t win here.”
From sixth in qualifying, out first round, Romine didn’t gain or lose any ground in the points chase. He’s still sixth. Still focused on his first IHRA national event win, he says he doesn’t mind it being at the IHRA World Nationals at all. “It’s the best track we run on all year. Hands down. The competition will be tough. But I know how to run consistently there.”
Romine will participate in Norwalk’s Thunder in the Streets, Wednesday before the World Nationals.
Mike Romine’s Nuclear Tomato is sponsored by Chromatic, Andrews Products, Saddlemen and Romine Racing.
The Nitro Harley Machine Shop is sponsored by Lincoln Electric, Smith and Travers Tools.
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