CHICAGO (July 6) — One might think GEICO Suzuki rider Karen Stoffer’s first goal at this weekend’s O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Route 66 Nationals at Route 66 Raceway would be getting the Pro Stock Motorcycle points lead back.

But in what is becoming a career season for Stoffer, she and the GEICO team simply want to get back on track.

An unfortunate mechanical failure prevented her from making a single pass during eliminations at the last race in Norwalk, Ohio, and she slipped to second in the Pro Stock Motorcycle standings.

Yes, getting back on top is the ultimate goal, but the foundation for any championship is consistency. And Stoffer wants to get back to making clean, consistent passes like she has had for most of the season.

“The points lead might be the outcome, but our goal is really just to go down the race track as many times as we can on the weekend in a safe, fast, straight method,” Stoffer said. “If we continue to focus on going down the track as many times as possible, then we know we’re turning on the win light and we know whatever numbers come up are going to be good.

“It’s nice when the points come out of it, obviously. And that’s the ultimate goal. But for us, every race, every round is go down the race track straight, fast, and consistent in how we do everything.”

Stoffer has been the model of consistency this season. She’s qualified No. 2 three times and No. 4 twice, and before Norwalk won at least two rounds in every race, including reaching the finals three times.

“The whole thing is to make as many passes that are available to us,” Stoffer said. “We kind of blew that in Norwalk, but the team is very, very excited to get back out there in Chicago. After a diagnosis of the motor, we found a small broken part that now is part of our preventative maintenance program. We’ll be looking at it more often, but it’s something in the past that we’ve never had an issue with, nor had anyone else.

“The exciting thing is getting back out to Chicago and proving that we can get back on our consistency game fast and doing what we love to do – and that’s go down the race track on our GEICO Suzuki.”

Stoffer, crew chief Gary Stoffer, and the entire GEICO team will have to deal with the ever-changing summer weather in the Midwest, but the team has done a solid job of adapting all season.

“You never know if you’re going to have thunderstorms, humidity, cross-winds at 30 mph or beautiful sunny, cool, fast weather,” Stoffer said. “It depends on Mother Nature and how she decides to play the game. Gary is up for it, and we’ve been able to weather through just about every type of condition.”

Qualifying at Route 66 Raceway gets under way at 4 p.m. CDT Friday with qualifying continuing at 4 p.m. Saturday. Eliminations will being at 11 a.m. Sunday. ESPN2 will air the qualifying show at 9:30 p.m. EDT Saturday and eliminations at 9 p.m. on Sunday.

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Contact: Geiger Media at 832-971-9345 or rob@go2geiger.com.

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