K&N's Dan Fletcher Mixes it Up in Las Vegas and Grabs 76th NHRA National Event Win
- 13 Apr 2012
Although Fletcher has racked up an outstanding number of accolades over his racing career, the Churchville, New York racer has a few more he would like to add, including winning a NHRA National event in Super Comp. "I had my own Super Comp car a few years ago, but frankly I didn't do that well with it," he confessed. "Since I've been driving some other people's cars, I've driven much better in theirs than I ever did my own. This weekend, I borrowed Justin Lamb's really nice Racetech car, albeit not a super-fast car only running about 170 MPH. I had a great opportunity to win in Super Comp this weekend and I really want to check that one off my list, because when I do that would be wins in five classes." For not running the longer cars much, Fletcher showed the pro that he is by going five tough rounds in a car and class he doesn't normally compete in. "I got down to six cars and would have had the bye into the final," he explained. "The car was going faster than it was supposed to in the quarter-finals and 'hurricane winds,' crosswind, tailwind, this-that-and-the-other and the car is supposed to be going three or four [hundredths] under and I kill my three or four. I'm .025 on the tree to his .042 and he's behind me and that's where he stayed. So, it's a double breakout with four-thou difference between us and I'm just on the wrong side."
Even though it was Fletcher with the win at Pomona in his K&N Comp Eliminator car, he hadn't been really pleased with its performance out of the gate for 2012. "The car was a big pile of dirt at Pomona and we really didn't deserve to win," he said. "We went to Phoenix and it was still bad. So we had to go home and do some work. We had to go through the chassis and send the motor back and spend some money. We found some issues here, there and wherever and then we were off to Vegas. We weren't the fastest car there, but at least we were in the top half [qualified field] with a car that was capable of winning. I drove pretty well and the car ran well and at least we didn't embarrass ourselves. At Phoenix, frankly it was embarrassing." On the way to successfully defending his Comp Eliminator title from the spring 2011 Las Vegas race, Fletcher qualified his K&N B/EA '08 Chevy Cobalt at number nine and thanks to the rare odd number of cars that made up the field, would position himself on the ladder to have a shot at a single in later rounds. Fletcher made a great pass in round one against Brian Fitzpatrick, with a .002 RT to Fitzpatrick's .056 and easily took the stripe al while being able to stay completely safe on his index. Round two he faced Tom Mettler and again Fletcher nailed the tree with a .010 and took a whopping .080 starting line advantage. This was a very important round as the winner would earn themselves a bye in the next round. Fletcher made an easy race of it and took the stripe for the round win, although it cost him a CIC hit on his index that he would have to carry for the rest of the event. Showing that he was certainly on his driving game, Fletcher posted a perfect .000 reaction time during his quarter-final bye and on to pair up with Clint Sallee. Both drivers came into the matchup carrying their own CIC, Fletcher with the slight disadvantage. Sallee, try as he may with the better reaction time, but this one was going to Fletcher by less than a blink of an eye at the stripe. Taking an even bigger CIC hit and running .552 under his 8.38 class index, Fletcher squeezed one out at the finish line staying just five inches ahead or .001 as he paved his way into the finals.
Whether it was in Super Comp or Comp Eliminator, the immense wind, and its ever-changing direction over the course of the event, kept things interesting for Fletcher and his fellow racers. "The wind was pretty bad in both [cars]," he noted. "The run I lost in Super Comp, I'm in the left lane and I'm spun around looking at the guy the whole pass and as I'm staring at him backwards, I could just feel the car being buffeted left and right. It was a rather disconcerting feeling. The Comp car is a 2,000 pound car on a radial tire and the wind can really get to that car, but you know honestly, it really wasn't that bad. When you come out from past the stands there, with the crosswind that we had at times, you would get hit with a pretty big blast. The car just must be round and aerodynamic enough that it didn't really affect me too bad. You could feel it, but it was manageable." Fletcher rolled into the Competition Eliminator final, his 115th final at a NHRA National and even though he was down by .02 in CIC compared to his competitor, he masterfully drove his K&N Chevy Cobalt to his 76th NHRA National victory. Fletcher made his quickest pass of eliminations right when he needed to with a 7.816 on his 8.33 index and just shy of .02 at the stripe over Doug Lambeck. Whether Fletcher is behind the wheel of one of his more recognizable pair of K&N '69 Chevy Camaros or a friend's car, he only trusts his motors to the kind of protection that only K&N filters can provide. "We put more passes on our engines between freshen-ups than a lot of the racers out here," he pointed out. "When you are doing all this to put food on the table, you can't take a chance of trusting what is in essence your family's livelihood to anything that could be subpar, I just go with the best to start with and protect my investments with K&N. Our K&N oil filters and air filters are a big part of why we can safely get so many runs on our cars." Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world. |
