KENT, Wash. (July 18, 2024) – In their first full Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series season, Dave Richards and the Versatran / BlueBird Funny Car team have made a lot of “first”, they’ll add to that list this weekend when they make their Pacific Raceways debut for the NHRA Northwest Nationals.
“We’re doing a lot of things for the first time with this Versatran / BlueBird team,” said Richards. “I haven’t been to Pacific Raceways, but I can tell you that I’m looking forward to it. It’s in a beautiful part of the country, the perfect spot to turn on some Sunday win lights.”
Richards and the Versatran team have had some growing pains through the first 10 races of the year, but a decision to front half the car before the Richmond, Virginia event has been showing signs of success with the team making clean passes down the track.
“We’re optimistic, we have to be, but our optimism is being backed by improved performance,” Richards said. “If we can get some momentum, I think we could really start to turn things around. It starts with that first run Friday afternoon.”
With an extended length of wait time between the first and second qualifying sessions because of visibility due to the sun on track, Pacific Raceways has added some fanfare to the schedule.
“We’re going to have some fun on Friday evening. Hopefully the fans stick around. My teammate Daniel and I signed ourselves up for an interesting experience,” Richards said. “Pretty sure Justin [Ashley] will be helping to get the fans involved too. Should be fun, it’s different but had to do something during the down time between sessions.”
The NHRA Northwest Nationals at pacific Raceways kicks off with four rounds of qualifying Friday at 4:30 and 9:15 p.m. and Saturday at 2:30 and 4:45 p.m. The top 16 will compete in eliminations Sunday with first round at 10:30 a.m. Television coverage of the event will start on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) with qualifying shows Friday at 10:30 p.m. ET and Sunday at 1:00 p.m. ET. The eliminations will air on FOX Broadcasting Network (FOX) Sunday at 4:00 p.m. ET.
