Story By: SARA SLAUGHTER / SCAG RACING – JOLIET, IL – Dave Richards and his Versatran / BlueBird Funny Car team enter this weekend’s Gerber Glass & Collision Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway eager to build on their recent results.
Richards and the Versatran team came away from the Charlotte Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway with their first eliminations round win. Richards would handle the Versatran / BlueBird machine to a 4.014-second pass at a career best 319.60 mph to beat Blake Alexander and points leader Austin Prock in the first quad. Their performance put the Versatran / BlueBird team up to 15th in the points standings, an improvement from 18th.
“I’m really looking forward to getting back in the seat of the Versatran / BlueBird Funny Car. We made progress in Charlotte, but these two weekends off have been too long. I’m excited to see what we can do on the track,” Richards said. “The guys have been working hard, and it’s starting to come around. We’re hoping for more improvement every run.”
The Route 66 Nationals are something of a home race for Versatran, BlueBird and SCAG Power Equipment with their parent company Metalcraft of Mayville headquartered just a few hours away in Mayville, Wisconsin. As a result, Saturday will be a special Metalcraft of Mayville / SCAG Employee Appreciation Day with over 700 employees and their families in attendance in addition to 112 dealers and their guests.
“It’s a big weekend for SCAG Racing. We’re close to the headquarters, Metalcraft of Mayville, so we’re going to have a ton of employees out this weekend. I’m going to enjoy getting to chat with them and the dealers we’ll have out there, too,” Richards said. “It’ll be fun to have all of them in the cats eye gold representing in the crowd. I’m hoping we put on a great show for them and make them proud.”
Competition at the Gerber Glass & Collision Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway begins with qualifying Friday at 3:30 and 6 p.m. and Saturday, at 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. Eliminations for the event are slated for Sunday at 11 a.m. Television coverage will be on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) with qualifying shows Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET and Sunday at 1 p.m. ET. Eliminations will air at 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET on Sunday.