Drag racing seasons can be like a fine wine and for Cory McClenathan, 1997 was a good year.

McClenathan swept the NHRA’s Western Swing, a grouping of three western races in as many as weeks, and posted a career six victories in eight finals en route to finishing runner-up to Gary Scelzi for the series championship that year.

McClenathan could stand to have another 1997, this time in 2010.

The 2010 Western Swing features the same stops in Denver [Co.], Seattle [Wa.] and Sonoma [Ca.] but unlike the 1997 season, this time the races start in Seattle and end in Denver.

Drag racing seasons can be like a fine wine and for Cory McClenathan, 1997 was a good year.

McClenathan swept the NHRA’s Western Swing, a grouping of three western races in as many as weeks, and posted a career six victories in eight finals en route to finishing runner-up to Gary Scelzi for the series championship that year.

McClenathan could stand to have another 1997, this time in 2010.

The 2010 Western Swing features the same stops in Denver [Co.], Seattle [Wa.] and Sonoma [Ca.] but unlike the 1997 season, this time the races start in Seattle and end in Denver.

“With the way the races are set up this year, Seattle is the first race of the Swing, and I'm excited about that,” said McClenathan, who has won two events this year in four final rounds and stands third in points. “It's a little bit easier to get cracking when you're in the first race of the three-week stretch that used to be the last one.”

Coincidently, the only time McClenathan has won in Seattle was in 1997. If he’s to have a chance at sweeping “The Swing,” he has to add a second Seattle win this weekend at the NHRA Northwest Nationals.

He’s in the process of stacking the motivational deck of cards in his favor through family and making up for lost bonding time.

“My daughter, Courtney, will be there with me, the weather should be good, and we have a good car. All of those are confidence boosters,” added McClenathan, who has already clinched a spot in the Countdown to 1 playoffs. “I spent the Fourth of July at (fiancee) Debi's family reunion in Alabama. Debi (Dixon) will catch up with me in Sonoma and we'll keep on rocking. July will be a crazy month.”

If July is going to be crazy, McClenathan would just as soon throw success into the craziness to improve his seeding headed into the Countdown to 1 championship phase of the season.

“I’d like to throw down some more wins before we get into the Countdown and move up in the standings, but when it really comes down to it, I would save it all for the Countdown,” admitted McClenathan, who has advanced to the semifinals in the last two events and four times all season. “I have no problem with that. But these semifinal finishes are a little anti-climactic. At the same time, I know guys who have won the championship by going to a whole lot of semis, and that's what we've been doing here lately.

“We've had a good car in qualifying (four No. 1s, all top-half efforts this year), but we've fallen a little bit short in eliminations on Sunday. However, if we're saving all our luck and all our good runs for the Swing or for the Countdown, I'm good either way. We'll work hard on that.”