A cold and rainy morning turned into a beautiful afternoon for the Chevy Cobalt drag cars and Pontiac Solstice drift cars at NOPI'€™s Englishtown event. The pro drag racing teams got only one shot at qualifying, but it was enough for Gary Gardella to put his Chevy Cobalt at the top of the Pro FWD class with a 7.12 second run. Chevy racer Marty Ladwig was in the second spot in Pro FWD, and Bryan Jimenez grabbed the same spot in the Hot Rod class. The Turbo Street class was able to squeeze in two qualifying rounds. Brian Ballard landed in the top spot, piloting his Cobalt to a run of 9.518 seconds at 152.90mph.

Gary Gardella made a name for himself the right way in the racing industry. His reputation is very good and always well received because he has been there from the beginning, has maintained an incredible attitude and runs with an amazing passion to win! I have rarely seen Gary stop at a table to sign autographs where there wasn'€™t a line of enthusiasts waiting to get his autograph and to have a chance to talk to him. One of my favorite things about Gary is that he approaches each fan as his most important. And it shows!

 There is always room for improvement and Gardella Racing is no exception to this rule. Once the team got back from the first NHRA event at Moroso we sat down to talk about the improvements that needed to be addressed before the next event in Virgina.

The past couple of events have been insane! Englishtown was such a surprise to the drag racing community!

Kirby Chambliss and Gary Gardella squared off in unique fashion this week, pitting Gardella's Chevy Cobalt against Chambliss' Zivco EDGE airplane.