Funny Car driver Jerry Toliver will be looking to make some noise in "Thunder Valley" as the NHRA Full Throttle Series travels to the mountains of Bristol, Tenn., for this weekend's 9th annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway. Toliver will be behind the wheel of the familiar green, yellow and white CANIDAE/Lucas Oil Chevy Funny Car fielded by NHRA legend Jim Dunn and his Jim Dunn Racing team.
"I'm upbeat going into Bristol," Toliver said. "The guys have been working their tails off and it's just a matter of getting more laps on this CANIDAE car. The team has shown improvement, the car has shown improvement, and every lap is a test lap, as Big Jim (Dunn) likes to say. So we learned some good lessons there in St. Louis, and at Bristol we'll have four more laps and race day. Hopefully we can get this thing figured out, get down the track and go some rounds."
Bristol Dragway is one of four Bruton Smith-owned tracks including The Strip at Las Vegas, Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., and zMAX Dragway in Charlotte that collectively host five Full Throttle Series events during the year.
"Bristol is a class "A" facility, no doubt," Toliver said. "All of Bruton Smith's tracks are that way. And the fans are fantastic there so I've always enjoyed going to Bristol. I've met a lot of people over the years there that still stop by and hang out with me. It's a premier facility and very unique sitting there in Thunder Valley. I haven't had a lot of success there, I haven't won there, but it's on my radar."
A two-hour telecast of qualifying coverage for the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals can be seen on ESPN2 on Saturday, May 16, beginning at 6:00 p.m. (ET). Coverage on ESPN2 continues on Sunday, May 17, when NHRA Race Day will kick off eliminator coverage starting at 11:00 a.m. (ET), and concludes with three hours and 30 minutes of final eliminations coverage beginning at 7:00 p.m. (ET).
Kirk Weeks
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