Toliver, Canidae Racing Team Ready for the Dry Heat of Phoenix

After a challenging, rainy weekend of drag racing at NHRA's season-opening Winternationals at Pomona (Calif.) two weeks ago, most teams should be ready for the desert sun at this weekend's 25th annual Lucas Oil Slick Mist NHRA Nationals at Firebird International Raceway. Jerry Toliver in the Canidae/Lucas Oil Chevy Funny Car is certainly among those just wanting to make laps in his new ride. 

Toliver qualified 16th in the one and only qualifying session that set the field at Pomona and faced No. 1 qualifier Robert Hight in Sunday's first round. After more than four hours of rain delay and cooling temperatures, Toliver and Hight finally faced off with Hight getting the win light with an elapsed time of 4.159 seconds at 302.62 mph as Toliver's car lost traction and slowed to an 8.122 e.t. at 87.22 mph.

"We're very happy we qualified (at Pomona)," Toliver said. "You have to understand, (Sunday of eliminations) was only my second lap in the Canidae car. I've got a lot of things, personally as a driver, that I have to get comfortable with. You bond with a car and you know where everything is, and I'm still searching for stuff and trying to get comfortable, but that just comes with laps and we need some more laps. We're not frustrated by any means."

NHRA officials were able to complete only one round of eliminations on Sunday at Pomona before rain again interrupted action on the track. Ron Capps was eventually crowned the Winternationals Funny Car champ as he bested Jim Head when eliminations were finally completed on Tuesday.

Reinforcing the difficult conditions at Pomona was last year's primary championship contender and second-place finisher in points, Tim Wilkerson, failing to qualify for this year's season opener.

"It's going to be a tough class this year," Toliver said. "There are a lot of good cars out there. I've always said you've got to be in to win. Just qualifying is a feat in itself."

A two-hour telecast of qualifying coverage for the Lucas Oil Slick Mist NHRA Nationals can be seen on ESPN2 on Sunday, Feb. 22, beginning at 12:00 midnight (ET). Coverage on ESPN2 continues on Sunday, Feb. 22, when NHRA Race Day will kick off eliminator coverage starting at 12:30 p.m. (ET), and concludes with three hours of final eliminations coverage beginning at 7:00 p.m. (ET).

Kirk Weeks