Julie Nataas carried the Randy Meyer Racing flag into the semifinal round at the 13th annual DeWALT NHRA Carolina Nationals, while Rachel Meyer inked a quarterfinal finish in the NTK Sensors dragster.
Coming into raceday, Julie qualified No. 2 with a 5.168-second pass at 274.89 mph and Rachel was No. 9 with a 5.279, 271.19.
In Rachel’s matchup against Corey Michalek first round, she pulled away for the win with a 5.240, 275.06 over Michalek’s 5.342, 272.39. The following pair, Julie nabbed the starting line advantage over competitor Brad McBride and lit up the scoreboard win light in her lane with a 5.232, 272.94 to defeat McBride’s 5.402, 246.21.
Second round, Julie was able to overcome a sizable starting line deficit against Mick Steele thanks to her Randy Meyer-tuned beast; her 5.228 268.60 went on to defeat Steele’s 5.413, 272.78. In her matchup, Rachel had an impressive .028-second reaction time over competitor Matthew Cummings but her 5.235, 279.15 was not enough to outrun Cumming’ 5.135, 281.71.
“Well we struggled a little in qualifying at Charlotte,” Rachel claimed. “Our first hit would have been a good pass but it carried the wheels after I left and I started heading towards the wall. I got out of the throttle then tried getting back in it, and popped the front wheels again so I lifted. Q2 had a much better performance, but in Q3 it shook hard because we were too aggressive on the tune-up. We were able to qualify 9th and got the first round win, but unfortunately lost second round to Matt Cummings who ran a great 5.13 pass and went on to win the race. So far I’m still holding onto the points lead both regionally and nationally. I have two more races left this season; St. Louis regional and Dallas national.”
In the semifinal round, Julie turned every head at zMAX DRAGWAY her way as she busted out a 5.103, 277.54 but unfortunately, she turned on the red light by .025-seconds at the hit; Karen Stalba’s 5.320, 277.94 advanced to the final round.
“My OTG car was running good all weekend long,” said Julie. “We ended the weekend running the 3rd quickest run in history in the semifinals when I unfortunately turned the red light on. I have 3 more races this season, and after running so good this weekend I can’t wait to finish this season strong. “