It might be just for a week, but Pontiac Pro Stocker Greg Anderson and Chevy Funny Car driver can claim the title of King of the Mountain after wins at the 29th annual NHRA Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway on July 13, 2008.
Anderson drove his Summit Racing Pontiac GXP to his third consecutive race win and fifth on the season by defeating Allen Johnson in the final round. Anderson had an elapsed time of 7.024 seconds at a track-record speed of 196.39 mph to defeat Johnson’s Dodge at a 7.028 e.t. and 195.79 mph. Anderson also set the track record for elapsed time at 7.010 seconds when he qualified No. 1 for today’s eliminations, and now has collected wins at the last three NHRA stops – Englishtown (N.J.), Norwalk (Ohio), and Denver.
“Every year we come here it’s such a tough challenge,” Anderson said. “This is the toughest race of the year for us; it’s just so different than everything we do all year long. We came out here and tested, made 19 runs in two days and really had a good test. Still, when you come back for the race you don’t know what’s going to be different. We just ended up having a great weekend and adapted great. We probably learned more this year than we ever have out here. All the years I’ve been coming here I’ve just never really been able to get a handle on this track. Every Sunday in the past here, and it’s usually been early in the day for us, we just couldn’t wait to get off of the mountain. We just couldn’t figure it out and wanted to get back to sea level. This year I felt really good about it after the test, and after Friday I thought we probably had a better chance of winning than we’ve ever had. It’s a tough monster to tame, but we tamed it today and had a great race car. I don’t want to get off of the mountain now; I love it out here. I wish we could race here again next week.
“This might’ve been the hardest we’ve worked for a win before, but that’s just the way it’s been this year. The class is so close and so tight right now; you can’t afford to have a bad race. NHRA POWERade Pro Stock is the best it’s ever been, without a doubt. We’ve had a good run the last three races, I can’t deny it, but I tell you anybody can win on any given Sunday.”
Anderson joined a long list of drivers praising Bandimere Speedway’s all-new concrete surface and the cooling system installed under the track surface for the first 150 feet.
“I can’t possibly say enough about the job that the Bandimere family has done with this racetrack in the last year, Anderson said. “All of the changes and improvements that they have made is absolutely the wave of the future. With the cooling system at the starting line and the all-concrete surface, it’s made this track so much better than it used to be. It was never bad, but it’s absolutely a supper track right now. You didn’t see any problems at all out there with any of the classes. You just don’t see that at any track we go to. My hat’s off to them; they did a great job.”