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NOPI Englishtown: Pontiac Solstice GXP Get Its First Drift Win!
A cold and rainy morning turned into a beautiful afternoon for the Chevy Cobalt drag cars and Pontiac Solstice drift cars at NOPI’s Englishtown event.
The pro drag racing teams got only one shot at qualifying, but it was enough for Gary Gardella to put his Chevy Cobalt at the top of the Pro FWD class with a 7.12 second run. Chevy racer Marty Ladwig was in the second spot in Pro FWD, and Bryan Jimenez grabbed the same spot in the Hot Rod class. The Turbo Street class was able to squeeze in two qualifying rounds. Brian Ballard landed in the top spot, piloting his Cobalt to a run of 9.518 seconds at 152.90mph.
During eliminations, Brian Ballard progressed consistently through four rounds to bring home a win for Chevy and his CSI racing team. Turbo Street is a highly competitive class with little room for error. Congratulations to Brian, Rob, Jason, Charlie, and the whole CSI team!
class. Marty was able to get by number one qualifier Gary Gardella to not only get the win, but also set a new national record at a blazing 7.167 seconds! Sweeeeet!
In addition to drag racing, it was a huge weekend for the Pontiac Solstice GXP in the NOPI Drift competition on Englishtown Raceway’s road course. New this season are two production-based Solstice GXP Drift cars, one owned by CSI and the other owned by Gardella Racing. Drivers Ali Aljibouri (CSI) and Ryan Tuerck (Gardella Racing) put on a great show for drift fans. Ali qualified in seventh; Ryan was second. The two met up in the quarter-final round and looked absolutely amazing drifting their Solstices side-by-side. Ryan advanced in the Solstice vs. Solstice battle, and then through two more rounds of eliminations to win the event overall. It was the first win for Solstice in an individual drift competition and a huge milestone for a team competing in only its second event ever. A huge congratulations goes out to Ryan and the Gardella Racing drift team. Pontiac couldn’t be more proud. Next weekend, be sure to watch Ryan at Formula Drift Atlanta.
Check out our Flickr galleries or more photos of the NOPI Drift Englishtown eventand for the NOPI Drag event.
Photo of the Week
Don Nase Jr. burns out in his GM Racing-ECOtec-Mobil 1 dragster.
