Hoyos racks up third win to add to points lead

National Dragster, Aug 22, 2003

Pro FWD

Nelson Hoyos kept alive his string of consecutive final-round appearances by overcoming drivetrain woes that plagued the Bothwell Motorsports Chevy Cavalier in qualifying to score his third victory of the season in five tries.

During qualifying, his Chevrolet-sponsored team struggled with clutch problems and failed to earn its usual No. 1 qualifying spot, ranking a distant fourth with a 10.51 behind polesitter Christian Rado's World Performance Celica (8.46) and the Team Bergenholtz entries of sport compact racing pioneer "Dr." Charles Madrid (9.03 in the Bergenholtz Racing CRX) and Ed Bergenholtz (10.16 in the team's new Mazda 6).

Hoyos defeated Jarrod Silvers in round one with a 9.298, then received a bye run after Rado and Jerrold Rhodes broke at the line in their first-round match. Hoyos used the bye as a test run and ripped an 8.480 at 180.43 mph.

On the other side of the ladder, Madrid easily reached the final when Gainesville winner Shaun Carlson was a no-show. The bye-run parade continued into the final, where Madrid shut off when fluid was spotted on the track following his burnout. Hoyos soloed to the win with an 8.404 (low e.t.) at 181.69 mph (top speed).

"I'm just relieved," said Hoyos. "We had some transmission issues at the beginning of the weekend. We were pulling out our hair because we hurt the clutch, then we hurt the tranny. Going into eliminations, we didn't know if it would work. Thankfully it did. The team stayed late Friday night and got this Chevy Cavalier back on track, and we're bringing home another trophy."

Hoyos now has a commanding lead in the Pro FWD standings. He is followed by second-place Rado, who is 246 points back, and third-place John Brown, who is sidelined.