Strongest Showing of the Season! 

A first ever visit to Pennsylvania’s scenic Maple Grove Raceway for Todd Lesenko marked a serious move forward for the Canadian driver and the rest of the Jim Dunn Racing team….

After a rather difficult non qualifying effort the previous weekend at St. Louis– the entire team rebounded with what was arguably its strongest event performance of the season during NHRA’s Auto Plus Nationals.   Eliminations for that event were in fact completed on Monday (Oct. 8^th) after Sunday rain showers deferred the event’s conclusion.

With valued sponsor the Canidae Natural Pet Food Company being showcased primarily on their Dodge Stratus this weekend, Todd made three very strong runs during qualifying which included a career best  4.125 secs at 299.00 mph.

Todd then opened eliminations with a major victory when he upset the highly funded Snap-On Tools Toyota driven by Cruz Pedregon in round one.  Todd left the starting line first and won with a 4.299 secs at 284.75 mph.

In round two Todd raced for the first time in his career, drag racing’s living legend – John Force.  The pair left together however Todd’s car then lost traction and Force’s Castrol High Mileage Ford went on to the round win.

“At St. Louis we were making good power but we then had some issues with keeping the front end on the ground — which made the car undriveable,” Todd said.  “We were able to better manage that here and the results were very positive for us.”

The team which has been in action for 6 straight grueling weekends — will now get a much deserved 2 week break before heading to Las Vegas for the 2^nd to last race of the season within the 2012 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series…….(BB)

To view additional photos from NHRA Reading visit the Photo Gallery:  HERE

Photos by:  Bruce Biegler, Steve Embling and Dave DeAngelis