AMERICUS, Ga. - The Sovereign-Star Racing team enjoyed one of their most successful races of the season at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals this past weekend in Sonoma, Calif.
The team's Pro Stock Motorcycle drivers, Scotty Pollacheck and John Hall, posted career best ETs and 60-ft. numbers for themselves and Star Racing, in addition to claiming more round wins for the team.
Star Racing owner George Bryce said, "We had a fantastic weekend for launching. Star Racing's NHRA competition best 60-ft. is a 1.03, which we saw Scotty post this weekend in Sonoma. This season, both John and Scotty have posted personal bests and Star Racing team best ETs of 6.87 as well."
Hall, the No. 9 qualifier, ran his career best 6.870/192.19 to take the Round 1 win against Michael Ray's 6.942/191.87 on Sunday in Sonoma.
No. 10 qualifier Pollacheck took his Round 1 win with a 6.875/191.02 against Jerry Savoie's 6.932/193.10 run. Pollacheck led wire to wire for the win.
The Sovereign-Star drivers went on to face the Screamin' Eagle/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson teammates, Eddie Krawiec and Andrew Hines, in Round 2 Eliminations. The Sovereign-Star Racing Buells weren't enough to take down the Harleys, who advanced to face each other in the finals.
"George came up with an idea Saturday night of something to try Sunday morning which worked out really good since we ended up going a 6.87. In Round 2, we made another good pass with a 6.91 which wasn't enough to beat the Harleys," Pollacheck said.
"George told me to go out there and act like we were just testing in Valdosta," Hall said. "He told me to block everything out of my mind and just concentrate on making a good lap. From the burnout to the finish line, I was just gonna do a good run and get a good time slip that I could be proud of. It worked great; I got the win light. Then, I went up there with the same mindset in Round 2. I cut a good light, but we couldn't beat the Harley's power. We did the best we could do, though."
Overall, the team owners and crew noticed major improvement in the Sovereign-Star Racing program.
"We adjusted the motorcycles to suit the drivers' styles, which is something that's new because we've never really recognized their individual styles before since they've been changing what they were doing every run, so they hadn't really developed their own styles," Bryce said. "But now that they've been on the bikes for a few months, we can adjust Scotty's bike to suit his style and John's to suit him. The engines each ..." 
