Hernandez and Crew in Fourth Straight AMS Final; Runner up at Indy

Indianapolis (9/5/05) – Josh Hernandez and the Tommy Lipar Racing crew made their fourth straight final round appearance this season at the 51st annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, but came just short of winning the historic race.

“This was an incredible weekend for myself and our team,” Hernandez said. “For a rookie driver to make the final round at the U.S. Nationals, so much has to go right. Those things don’t happen because of luck. They happen because of good preparation, and a great crew. I think we represented the AMS/TLR Pro Mods very well this weekend and I know the fans loved every minute of it.”

The TLR Racing team was methodical in their approach and brilliant in their execution through the first three rounds of eliminations. They defeated Zack Barklage’s 6.25 second charge with a 6.11 second blast of their own. In the second round, they dispatched Mike Bell with the quickest Pro Mod pass of the event, 6.085 seconds at 227mph.

The semi-finals brought Rick Stivers up to meet Hernandez. Their performance did not falter and a 6.11, 231mph lap was good enough to drive away from Stivers’ aborted pass and earn a spot next to Jay Payne in the finals.

“What can I say about Howard Moon and my team?” Hernandez said. “While other competitors were struggling to make the right call about the racetrack our team met the challenge. We kept our focus on the race surface, not on the car in the other lane, and tuned this bad 1957 Chevy to get the most we could out of the track.”

The pairing of Hernandez and Payne represented the number one and two AMS/TLR qualifiers respectively. As the two men staged their racecars before the massive U.S. Nationals crowd, hopes were high for a win. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

“We just missed the setup on the last pass,” Hernandez said. “The previous two passes, I had to do a lot of driving as the car went down the track. We made some changes to fix that, and it did fix it, but we drove through the clutch. I still believe that we have the best car out here. We were on the pole and were the quickest car of every round except the first and the last one.”

The team now sets its sights on the next event in the AMS/TRL Pro Mod Challenge series, which will take place in Dallas, Texas, on September 22 and 23.

For same day coverage of this event, visit the Torco Race Fuels-sponsored http://www.competitionplus.com/.

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