The Doctor’s in;
TLR and Hernandez dominate Las Vegas
(10-23-05) Las Vegas – With a
titanic 6.08/232.44 mph run, Josh Hernandez completed the
mission that the entire Tommy Lipar Racing Team set out to
accomplish this weekend. They dominated the high stakes
game of Pro Mod racing in Las Vegas.
“This was the weekend that this team
needed,” Hernandez said. “This right here is the payoff
for a lot of hard work. We wanted this race really bad.”
The Dr. Moon’s Rage team set the
tone on Friday when they pulled the car off of the trailer
and ran 6.09 seconds on their first pass of the weekend.
That run held up through three qualifying sessions as the
quickest of the weekend. That is until the final round.
“From the first pass of the weekend,
I knew the car was all there,” Hernandez explained. “When
Howard Moon and my guys get this thing in the zone, it is
one of the baddest hot rods anywhere. This weekend we were
the baddest one in Las Vegas, that’s for sure.”
After a string of victories and
final round appearances through the middle of the season,
Hernandez and the TLR team ran into a rocky stretch of
broken parts and bad luck. They never wavered and the
payoff was this ultra satisfying victory to close out the
2005 campaign. This was the rookie season for Hernandez in
a Pro Modified, competing against the strongest cars in
the country. To make six final rounds in a debut year and
to win four of them is astounding.
“This whole year has been so
amazing,” Hernandez said. “My team was patient with me
when I was getting comfortable in this car. Because of
that I have been able to keep my confidence up and really
drive this thing the way it needs to be driven. Howard and
the crew do such a good job with the car. I want to drive
it so that it shows off their hard work.”
With a season of experiences ranging
from horrific wrecks to the pinnacle of victory, Hernandez
and this team are poised to return in 2006 as the team to
beat. That mission started here in Las Vegas
“It was great to have another chance
at racing Jay Payne,” Hernandez said. “That team is so
talented and that car is so strong. They beat us at Indy
and it was great to have the chance to run him all out
again. We got this one, so I guess we are even now.”
Tonight the AMS/TLR Pro Mod
Challenge series holds its awards banquet at the Monte
Carlo Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas. There will be smiles
all around the room, but none will be brighter than those
on the faces of the TLR team, especially Josh Hernandez.
In his season of firsts, this win
was second to none.
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