The first race of the year was a warm-up of sorts for Terry Elam and Sean Lyon as they were both getting ready for the NMRA opening race in Bradenton the following week. Both cars are packing the same proven Panhandle Performance engines from the previous year. Terry has been interested in jumping into the Super Street Outlaw class, and with a new 98mm Precision Turbo, was going to do just that. Sean will be running the slightly revamped X-275 class so the Panhandle crew got the car ready for Bradenton with everything NMRA spec except for the 1/8 mile specific rear gear.
Both teams seemed ready to pick-up where they left off at the final ORTC race in 2010 by qualifying at the top of the ladder. Terry qualified # 2 out of 25 in the â275 radial -vs- 28/10.5 slickâ class posting a stellar 4.794 @ 153.93. Meanwhile, Sean also qualified # 2 out of the packed 52 car Xtreme 275 radial field with a 4.96 @ 149. Terry ended his day with a -.015 red light quarter final against a car that was a full two tenths slower with a 4.79 vs 4.99. Sean forgot to let go of the button, cut a .214 light, and also lost to a car almost two tenths slower with a 5.01 against a 5.19. Bummer dude.
