Pritchett, Papa John’s/Mopar team climb the mountain to grab pole  with Bandimere record; Capps, NAPA lead DSR Funny Cars at No. 5  

MORRISON, CO – Leah Pritchett has been to the mountaintop and conquered it Saturday with Don Schumacher Racing’s Papa John’s Pizza/Mopar Top Fuel dragster when her team led by crew chief Todd Okuhara raced to their fourth No. 1 qualifying position of the year in the NHRA Mopar Mile-High Nationals near Denver.

Pritchett’s run of 3.733 seconds at 326.74 mph shattered Bandimere Speedway’s elapsed time record by thirty-four thousandths of a second.

“The wheels were up from the start,” said Pritchett, whose Mopar-backed dragster Powered by Pennzoil will go for its fourth event title in 14 events and cut into the points lead held by Steve Torrence.

After three of this year’s worst qualifying sessions in one event by DSR, which has won 18 of a possible 26 event titles through 13 events, Pritchett led a resurgence in the final session with reigning Funny Car world champion and points leader Ron Capps and the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T squad moving from eighth to fifth place and teammate Jack Beckman (Terry Chandler’s Infinite Hero Dodge) going from ninth to sixth.

The record-setting pole added to the hoopla of the Mile-High Nationals where Mopar, which has sponsored the race for 19 straight years, had another big reason to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the popular Mopar brand.

“Nothing would be better than to blow out those 80 candles in the winner’s circle tomorrow,” said Pritchett, who set the world time record of 3.658 at this year’s second event but that was at sea level and not at the challenging mile-high altitude of Bandimere.

“Eliminations tomorrow will be totally different from today; it will be hotter when we start first round. But we know what this racecar can do now. Our fab shop back home (near Indianapolis) put a new front half (on our chassis) and this showed what it can do.

“Todd and (assistant Joe Barlam) thought we could run in the mid to low 3.70s, and we did.”

Pritchett will go for her fourth win of the year and fifth of her career in the first race of the three-week Western Swing on Sunday, scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. (MDT).

Her Top Fuel teammate Tony Schumacher, who won at Bandimer e with the U.S. Army team a year ago, will start seeded fourth with Antron Brown and the Matco Tools team starting No. 7.

DSR has dominated the Funny Car category this year by winning 12 of 13 titles including the last 10, but two-time world champ Matt Hagan will start in the No. 15 spot in his Mopar 80th Express Lane Dodge and will face John Force in the first round. His previous low this year was 11th at Houston.

Tommy Johnson Jr. and Terry Chandler’s Make-A-Wish Dodge is seeded 12th.