Winning will have to wait for Scott Palmer as Dallas race ends early for CatSpot team

ENNIS, TX – For the first portion of his opening-round race against reigning Top Fuel champ Brittany Force, Scott Palmer was thinking he might just be able to upset his higher-qualified rival. But his CatSpot Organic Cat Litter Top Fuel dragster slowed ever so slightly in the middle of the track and although the difference was barely perceptible, it was enough for Force to charge by and take the win.

“We actually tried to make the car run a 3.77 and if we had run close to that we would have won that round but it just kinda drove through the clutch a little bit,” Palmer said. “We tried to speed it up early but it didn’t respond. We’ve been like 3.82, 3.83 — I mean the car is really consistent — but it just didn’t respond the way we wanted it to that round. We’ll be more aggressive next week.”

Palmer started well, leaving .022 seconds ahead of Force and felt comfortable until somewhere around the second timing cone, but that’s when his fortunes changed and Force was able to slip by and take the finish line stripe first, running a 3.762 at 330.07 mph to Palmer’s 3.839 at 323.97 mph.

“I didn’t see her for the first 300 feet,” Palmer said. ” I was feeling excited but then she started inching out on me. That was a big round. That was for ninth and 10th place. We were tied before this race so she moved ahead of us now. Next week we are just going to be more aggressive with everything
we do.”

“It is humid today, for sure, but the main difference is the track is a little bit cooler and it’s just a little bit stickier than it was yesterday. We probably just didn’t have enough on it early in the run.”

The popular CatSpot team won’t have to wait very long to take another shot at a coveted Wally trophy as the 11th annual NHRA Carolina Nationals take place Friday-Sunday at zMax Dragway in Concord, N.C.

“We are trying to win a race before the end of the year,” Palmer said. “Our goal is to win a race. The points don’t matter to us right now other than we want to move up and we still can. We are within a couple of rounds of seventh place so there is an opportunity to move up. If we win a race, all of that will take care of itself.”

Shane Conway, Palmer’s teammate under the Tommy Thompson Racing umbrella, reached the quarterfinals in his Magic Dry Absorbent Top Alcohol Dragster. Conway upset championship-contender Troy Coughlin Jr. Saturday evening before dropping a close one Sunday to Jackie Fricke, who went 5.301 at 264.96 mph to edge Conway’s 5.309 at 269.03 mph. It was a back and forth race, but Fricke got it done at the top end.

“It was a great weekend overall for our Magic Dry team, especially after taking a few months off from racing,” Conway said. “Beating Troy was huge. He’s been on a big winning streak. We almost had Jackie there but she got us by. 012 at the stripe. Overall, the car responded to everything we did and we’re excited to get to our next race.”