First, let's break down what Don went up against. The class he ran in is the Top Dragster class. Now this class is primarily dominated by old-school, big-block and small-block motors that are supercharged or spraying nitrous. Normally to qualify in this class with these big-displacement engines, you need something like a 7.10-second elapsed time.
Yeah - VERY FAST!
Now here comes Don's turbocharged ECOtec four cylinder. Not only did he raise some eyebrows, but he was definitely seen as a big underdog. By the way, this was the first turbocharged car to ever run in this class, let alone a turbocharged four cylinder! Qualifying took place Friday and Saturday and not only did Don come in and qualify, but he also did it with a 6.67-second run at 199 mph. This garnered him the number six spot out of 39 cars.
In Round One, Don squared off against a supercharged big block that qualified 13th with a 6.99-second elapsed time. The big block blew the tree with a red light, which automatically gave the win light to Don. This didn't matter much anyways because Don ran him down before the end of the run! In Round Two, Don was a little too quick off of the line and red lighted so he was automatically DQ'd.
"There is timing that has to be worked on when going from a pro tree to a full tree and it takes some getting use to," Don said.
In addition to representing the turbocharged ECOtec GM dragster at this event, the car was also awarded the 2007 "Best Engineered" car of the event. Don would like to thank everyone that has worked so hard on the turbocharged ECOtec GM dragster. When Don pulled his ECOtec dragster into tech inspection there were more then a few questions. They had never seen anything like this car before.
Congratulations go out to Don and all the people involved in this project and for a great weekend representing the Sport Compact scene and GM.
