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Jim Dunn Racing Event Recap; NHRA Las Vegas Nationals

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Jeff Arend
KGC Construction Funny Car Driver for Jim Dunn Racing
MOPAR NHRA Las Vegas Nationals powered by Dodge
Oct. 30-Nov. 1 | Las Vegas

Event Recap

Jeff Arend, driver of the Jim Dunn Racing KGC Construction Funny Car:

  • Earned No. 11 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (4.132 ET at 262.54 mph)
  • Fell to No. 13 provisional qualifying position in Q2 on Friday (4.070 ET at 303.09 mph)
  • Fell to No. 18 provisional qualifying position based off of Friday’s Q2 run. In Q3 on Saturday, Arend ran a 6.264 ET at 107.30 mph.
  • Secured the No. 18 qualifying position based off of Friday’s Q2 run. In Q4 on Saturday, Arend ran a 4.072 ET at 308.35 mph, which failed to qualify for the event.

Notes of Interest

  • Arend represented KGC (Kindness General Contractors) Construction this weekend in Las Vegas. KGC, is a full service general contracting firm designed to manage and facilitate a complete range of construction projects. They are responsible for a diversified portfolio of projects with a wide range of construction value and provide customers with what is most important to them: short schedules, unmatched quality and superior flexibility. At KGC, they understand that every project, regardless of size, requires a commitment to quality, attention to detail, and the ability to act and react with speed, efficiency and intelligence. They strive to provide a hassle-free experience to all their clients and look to form lasting partnerships built on mutual respect and trust.
  • The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series has one event remaining this season, the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals in Pomona, California. 

Jeff Arend, Driver of the Jim Dunn Racing KGC Construction Funny Car

“After what I consider our biggest accomplishment of the year, qualifying for Indy with the highest car count in more than 10 years and running a career-best 4.01 ET (elapsed time) at 320 mph, the Dallas and Las Vegas races obviously didn’t go the way we had hoped.

It wasn’t that we weren’t making it down the track. We were consistent, but consistently about five hundredths off the pace we knew we were capable of. The frustrating part was that nothing we were changing seemed to make sense. We would speed up the clutch, the Racepak data showed the clutch movement was doing what we programmed it to do, but the car would actually slow down. We just couldn’t put our finger on it.

Thankfully, after a tremendous team effort and a lot of help from people working to figure out the issue, we finally found the problem. In Q3, we shut off the program we had identified as the issue, and suddenly the clutch system started responding the way it was supposed to. The car smoked the tires about 100 feet out, but for the first time in a while, we saw the clutch system doing exactly what we had been trying to accomplish all season.

For Q4, we made an educated guess on the adjustments, and the car ran another 4.07 ET, this time with a cylinder out from about 330 feet to the finish line. Even with that issue, the clutch system did exactly what we programmed it to do. That was a huge step forward for us.

Now we’re looking forward to Pomona with a much better understanding of what the car wants. We know what’s too fast, what’s a little too slow, and now it’s a matter of fine-tuning everything to put it all together.

We’re thankful for KGC and all of our partners who continue to stand behind this Jim Dunn Racing team. We’re also excited to bring out another special-edition car to close out the season. We have some unfinished business, and we’re eager to see what numbers we can put on the board at the NHRA Finals in Pomona!”

Photo credit: Auto Imagery

Next Up

The next and final event on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule is the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals November 12-15 at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip in Pomona, California.

– Jim Dunn Racing –