SHAKESPEARE, ONTARIO (June 30, 2008)- T.J. Schippling was very optimistic heading into this weekends Canada Day race at Grand Bend Motorplex. Just off a runner-up finish in the last Armando’s Pizza Top Dragster Series event, Schippling was poised for another strong finish.

Qualifying kicked off Saturday afternoon for the Lucas Oil/ Dixie Chopper team. In the first attempt at the track Schippling was fifth best at 7.75 seconds.

“The heat and all the humidity in the air definitely slowed the cars down this weekend” said Schippling.

T.J. was quick to credit teammate Dan Morgan, who predicted he would run that elapsed time. “Dan was spot on, and that was difficult to figure out because it was a lot slower than we usually run.”

In the second session that day, Schippling made some changes to the car and it responded well as he sped up to a 7.62 E.T. Schippling jumped up to the third qualified position. Satisfied with the cars performance, the team fine tuned it for a consistent race day setup. And in the final qualifying session they duplicated their 7.62 position to maintain the third spot.

Sunday morning brought rain showers that lasted into the afternoon causing the race officials to reschedule the event to August 9. The qualified positions from this past weekend will be where they start from when eliminations begin that day.

Unofficially, the qualifying points from this weekend moved Schippling into second place in the points series, just one point out of first place.

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