CAREER BESTS HIGHLIGHT ATLANTA DAY ONE FOR J. CAPPS

Courtesy of Paul Smith Racing

COMMERCE, GA – The Paul Smith Racing team, with versatile nitro driver Jon Capps behind the wheel, powered their way to a 4.166 second elapsed time and speed in excess of 291 miles per hour, en route to a provisional number 10 qualifying spot after day one of the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals contested at Atlanta Dragway. Both timing standards were career bests for Capps, who is competing in his second National Hot Rod Association National Event of the 2011 season.

Capps, the 41-year old admissions counselor for Wyotech and part-time stunt driver from Las Vegas, Nev., entered the final qualifying session after laying down a very smooth and consistent 4.279 elapsed time in Q-1 (first qualifying session).

“Paul tuned it up for a good baseline run in Q-1 and that’s exactly what the Beisenbach Inc. / Paul Smith Racing Monte Carlo laid down,” noted Capps. “When I hit the throttle, the car drove hot, straight and normal, just like a torpedo looking for a target. Paul is a master at getting a car down the track from A to B. The run also gave me another solid lap under my belt and we were confident we could improve vastly in Q-2.”And improve he did; by more than a tenth of a second of his previous career best elapsed time recorded two weeks ago at the NHRA Spring Nationals in Baytown, Texas.

“Needless to say, I uttered quite a few ‘sentence enhancers’ at the end of that pass,” noted a smiling Capps in reference to one of his daughter’s favorite television shows Spongebob Squarepants and the ‘Sailor Mouth’ Episode where Spongebob discovers ‘dirty language’. “At the hit, I could just tell this thing was going to haul the mail. It got past the shake-zone (about 200’ into the run) and it just kept pulling and pulling, all the way down the track. When the chutes hit and I started to slow down, I screamed out ‘ah tartar sauce’ and a few other ‘sentence enhancers’. I was so stoked for Paul and the team that we were able to lay down two great runs today.”

Capps and the Paul Smith Racing team are quite content with their 4.166 performance. With the potential of severe weather looming for Saturday, Capps remains cautiously optimistic today’s qualifying effort will permit the team to make the 16-car field for Sunday’s final eliminations.

“I will not be totally relaxed until NHRA officially states qualifying is over,” Capps stated. “Sure the .16 was a great number to throw up on the board, but there are 7 other high-quality drivers and teams behind us who can lay down an impressive run if the weather stays away tomorrow. Never the less, we have steadily improved each time out. And I’m certain if Paul needs to turn up the wick, he will. I can’t say it enough how much I appreciate the support from Paul, Bodie and the entire Smith Racing crew. I am having so much fun out here and I look forward to more fun during the remainder of the weekend.”

Qualifying continues Saturday with sessions at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Sunday’s eliminations begin at 11 a.m.

Fans can follow Jon Capps online on twitter @joncapps and Facebook. You can also keep up to date with up to the minute race results posted on the pages of http://www.dragracecentral.com.