Page 14 - Aruba Today
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LOCALFriday 8 April 2016
Team Aruba Goes to Finals at IHRA Texas Nationals
putting on a great event “When the event was over
this weekend. The racers Saturday night, we packed
were given a good race up everything and got a
track, and the stands were little bit of rest before driv-
packed. We sure appreci- ing out Sunday morning.
ated the Texan hospitality. Our flights to Aruba were
All our fans were cheering for Tuesday, so we had to
us on and walking around make sure we make it back
with the free give away in time. We left Texas at 6
sunglasses, compliments of a.m. and drove straight
Aruba Airport Authority N.V. through until we reached
We are always giving away Union, South Carolina at 4
free information and sou- a.m. Bruce did an excel-
venirs, and this time they lent job of driving the great
came up with the idea of majority of it. We made it to
giving away sunglasses. Union in time to get some
That sure was a popular last minute things done on
hit.” Monday and got on our
The trip to Texas was the plane to Aruba Tuesday.
longest one the Arubans All in all, I’m still trying to
will have to make all year. figure out if all that effort
The fact that Eman and was worth second place,”
team could make such an Eman joked.
arduous trip and still per- Fortunately, the team will
form well enough to earn have two months to recu-
ORANJESTAD/SAN ANTO- would make the match of
NIO - Trevor Eman and the day. The final round
Team Aruba scored their matchup made for a great
first final round of the sea- side-by-side race from start
son in just the second race to finish. Unfortunately for
of the year. Building upon Team Aruba, Konigshofer
their performance at the crossed the finish line first by
season opener, the team just .007 of a second.
qualified second with a Although finishing second
6.23 elapsed time at 224 in such a tight race is an in-
MPH. This was less than one credible accomplishment,
hundredth of a second Team Aruba was hoping
behind pole sitter John Ko- for more. “We wanted to
nigshofer. The Aruba.com win this race very badly,”
/ AAA Mustang advanced expressed Eman. “We had
through eliminations as the the car to do it, as we had
quickest car each round, the most consistent car all
taking out heavy hitters JR weekend. But, the results
Carr and Matt Bertsch. In panned out just like the
the finals Eman had to face qualifying did. Konigshofer
Konigshofer, a pairing that in first place and us in sec-
ond. second place is a testa- perate and take care of
“Our team did a good job ment to their perseverance business at home before
this weekend of being con- and commitment. After the IHRA President’s Cup
servative and trying to stay flying in from Aruba, Eman Nationals, June 17-18.
consistent. The results of this and team drove from “We made good runs in
effort showed greatly. The South Carolina to Texas San Antonio and I’m cer-
team produced a great on Wednesday before the tain we can keep this mo-
car this weekend, and Jon event, finally arriving to the mentum going into Budds
Kaase gave us awesome track Thursday afternoon. Creek. These results put us
power. They raced Friday and Sat- third in points and we have
“Even though the IHRA is urday before repeating the every intention of taking
currently in restructuring, long trip home. that higher.”q
our hats go off to them for
