Alexander Progresses to Bristol FC Semifinals

BRISTOL, TN – Auto Service Plus Funny Car driver Blake Alexander added another highlight to his strong 2013 season this weekend when he reached the semifinals at the Ford Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway. Despite struggling in qualifying, the 24-year old Virginian turned on two win lights before falling to eventual race winner John Force.

Alexander’s best qualifying run of the weekend, 4.35, came during the Friday night session, but it wasn’t enough to place him in the top twelve to carry over to Saturday. His final pass during Q4 placed him No. 15, setting up a first round match with the reigning NHRA Funny Car champion, Jack Beckman.

“We were trying a few different things in qualifying. Sometimes you need to go slower to go faster, and obviously we went slower before progressing. We knew we were already qualified going into the last session on Saturday, so we just went up there seeing what the track would take with our set-up,” said Alexander.

Blake cut a stellar .046 light against the defending champ in the opening round. He led the race across the board, running 4.24 to Beckman’s 4.51. Another starting line advantage led to a second round win when Alexander’s Auto Service Plus Dodge Charger ran 4.28 to Bob Tasca’s 4.67. He would face 15x Funny Car champion John Force in the semifinals.

“We needed those runs in eliminations to figure out our clutch package. We were quicker at every increment as we progressed through eliminations. It probably would’ve run a 4.17 if I didn’t deep-stage, but I knew Force would roll it in a bit,” Blake said.

Blake drove the Paul Smith Racing entry to its quickest elapsed time of the weekend, 4.19 at 300 MPH, but Force ran low E.T. of the round to move on, later winning the race.

Alexander and the Auto Service Plus powered by Auto-Plus Funny Car team won’t need to wait long to back up their performance at Bristol. They’ll compete at the inaugural Auto-Plus New England Nationals in Epping, N.H. this weekend, June 21-23

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