The track conditions drew the ire of at least three of the four Pro Stock drivers in the left lane during the quarterfinals. The fourth has admittedly had so many problems during weekend that he couldn’t say if track prep had anything thing to do with his run.

Jim Yates was the first driver down behind the fuel cars and recorded the only victory with an off-and-on-the-throttle 7.685, 189.63 to defeat Jeg Coughlin, Jr., who shook the tires in the right lane and lifted.

Three almost-identical runs resulted in the cars of Larry Morgan, Mike Edwards, and Dave Connolly each shaking the tires and making abrupt right turns.

“It was real simple,” Morgan said. “The track wasn’t prepared good enough to handle the horsepower of these cars. They [NHRA] just doesn’t understand what the Pro Stock cars need nor do they give a f***.

“What they need is Lynwood [Dupuy] or just someone out of the stands to come out there and prepare the track.”

Morgan then pointed to his engine graph. “Look at that. It goes straight up. The driveshaft goes straight up. I can bitch all I want and badmouth everybody but they’re just not intelligent enough to do it. What they should do is hire someone to take over.

“They just don’t care. It’s crazy. It’s a total shame that they do this. They need someone who specifically knows what our cars need in track prep. It’s a shame. This is not the first time this has happened. It is pathetic that they have to run their organization the way they do in regards to track prep. It is pathetic to the point that we all had to shut off.

“We all looked like [Ron] Krisher out there and lucky we are didn’t end up like him. I can’t believe I did what I did. Until all of this changes up there…none of this is going to change.”

Reportedly the Pro Stock finals in Reading were delayed due to concerns about track prep just two weeks ago.

“Graham [Light] can bitch about the wing but short of putting [John] Force’s wing on it’s not going to help us,” Morgan said. “The wing isn’t the problem. Don’t fix the wings. Don’t fix the cars. Fix the track…that’s the problem.

“I can’t tell you how many fans have walked up to us and asked what is wrong with the track. I’m going to send them up to talk to Graham and have them ask him what is wrong with the track. He sure as hell won’t listen to us. Maybe he will listen to someone who pays money to watch. Me bitching about it isn’t going to fix a thing. The ears are closed. They don’t care…period.”

Mike Edwards, a 6.5-second performer, wasn’t as vocal as Morgan, but added, “There were four pretty good teams that went up there and did the same exact thing. I don’t think there was something wrong with all four of our cars. That’s all I have to say.”

Dave Connolly thinks the real losers were the fans.

“It was BS for us and the fans,” Connolly said. “They don’t pay to see those things. During the problems they never once walked up there and looked. It wasn’t fair to us or to the fans. It made for bad racing. These cars take different preparation than the fuel cars.”

The anger didn’t cool for long until the first semifinal pair when Martino and Yates engaged in a pedal-fest which resulted in a 9.196 to 9.661 decision. Martino won in the right lane as did Jason Line. Greg Anderson recorded his slowest elapsed time of the day – a 6.62 in the left lane to lose to Line.

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