After announcing in late summer that the team would be a fixture on all of the remaining events on the NHRA POWERade circuit in 2007, in preparation for a full-scale attack on the 2008 NHRA Countdown to the Championship, Foley & Lewis added to their resume with a semi-final round finish at the O’Reilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals. So far at this point in the year, the team has been to ten POWERade events, with four semi-final round finishes to their credit.
One might now be thinking “What does it take to win one of the events?”, but the Foley & Lewis team is still plenty excited to make it further than 12 other drivers who had previously lost. “We’re a new team on the NHRA scene,” says Foley, “but my guys are all doing a heck of a job getting this car to run fast when we need it. We struggled a little bit in qualifying this weekend, but when it counts, our team was there.”
The “struggling” in qualifying Foley alluded to amounted to the team qualifying in the No. 16 position for a 16-car field. The upside is that you are indeed in the field, with the downside being your position entitling you to run the No. 1 qualified car. In this case, it amounted to a rematch from two races ago at Reading in Foley having to face the POWERade champion Tony Schumacher. In a repeat of Reading , Foley once again earned the win light with a solid 4.608-second run.
Good news, bad news. Good news is the Foley & Lewis team was going to the second round, but the bad news is they would have to face perennial winner Rod Fuller. Good news again, the Mach Series Accelerator car earned another win light with his best run of the weekend, another 4.605. Remember when we talked about consistency? This is what it takes.
In the semis, it was the Doug and Doug show, as Foley, the newly nick-named “giant-killer”, faced Doug Herbert, with the possible Cinderella story coming to an end. “As soon as I hit the gas, the tires went right up in smoke,” Foley says. “Since we made the announcement of running the full NHRA schedule, Doug Kuch [crew-chief] has tried to be more aggressive with our combination in the early part of the race track. The result has been a remarkable improvement, but it’s thrown our balance off slightly. We just need to work through some of the bugs, however, we know we’re going in the right direction and that’s what counts.”
Co-owner Tim Lewis said, “We’ve said this a million times, and I know everyone says it, but it’s true. We’re really proud of our guys. To be doing this good with only a handful of full-time crew, and the majority just part-time fly-in guys, says a lot about their abilities to work together as a team. With four races left this season, we feel pretty confident of our chances to make the final round before the year is out, and of course, we’re extremely optimistic about our Countdown chances in 2008 “
Foley says, “While our crew is a major reason for our success, the support we receive from Evan Knoll and Torco Race Fuels along with our other sponsors, J.G. Parks and Son, Jet Label & Tape, Valvoline, Ross Pistons, GRP, Pyroil, ARP. and Fel Pro can’t be understated. Those are the people that have faith in us, and without their help none of this would be possible.”
For more information on Foley & Lewis, please visit www.dougfoley.com
For more information on the Torco Mach Series Accelerator products, please visit www.torcoracefuels.com.
