TOPEKA, Kan. (May 22) – After making a huge leap at the last stop on the NHRA tour by qualifying for the Funny Car field for the first time this season, Melanie Troxel and the ProCare Rx Toyota team were intent on keeping the positive momentum going at this weekend’s NHRA Summer Nationals.

“We’re making progress,” Troxel said. “We’re making more consistent runs down the track, but we’re not at the ultimate place where we know the car needs to be.”

Troxel qualified for her second event in a row but lost in the first round of Funny Car eliminations to Cruz Pedregon. The multi-time series champion crossed the line first with a less-than-stellar pass of 4.539 seconds at 226.70 mph. But Troxel had smoked the tires early in her run and fought the car all the way down the track, crossing with a 5.446-second pass at 179.06 mph.

“From where we were this morning to when we went to line, the grains of water in the air changed quite a bit,” Troxel said. “We decided to go race with the tune-up we had instead of going back into the engine and making last-minute changes.”

With several weeks of major struggles out of the way, Troxel said the next step is to figure out the fine adjustments that will make the ProCare Rx Toyota sing.

“We’re changing things on this car and still trying to find the sweet spot with the clutch,” Troxel said. “We’re going to work to make this car less touchy. Right now, if you don’t hit things just right, it doesn’t want to get down the track.

“We’ve made huge strides and we just need to continue to tweak on it a little bit.”

Up next for Troxel is another double-duty race. She will race both Funny Car and Pro Mod at the June 3-5 NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway in Englishtown, N.J.

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