K&N's Greg Boutté Sews Up NHRA Super Comp National Win in the Desert
- Mar 12, 2012
Boutté is a Product Specialist for K&N and during the first few events of the season has been using a friend's 565 BBC in his 2002 Worthy dragster. "My heads still weren't back to me from Brodix for my 598 so I was still using Wayne Silva's motor, who won Top Sportsman, by the way, and Hughes was gracious enough to lend me an 8" converter," he said. "After giving it back by three thou first round at Pomona, I went to Phoenix, unloaded the car, left the same numbers in [throttle stop settings] from Pomona and I go 8.891 for the first time run." It was a good thing that Boutté has such a good first time run, as he would need that one to dial off of come eliminations. His second time run was a complete toss out thanks to a bad ground wire that cost him gaining any type of valuable information. A little luck would come his way in round one, and although he was ultimately dialed pretty close, his competitor went red and that allowed Boutté to make a flat out run with no consequences for whatever number he may put up on the board, thus giving him good information for round two. Although Boutté had won the make-up race for this event the year it finished at Sonoma, historically he had never gone more than three to four rounds at the facility, but that was all changing with this year's event for the Loma Linda, California racer.
Boutté came back second round and laid down a run that most driver's would take for their time slip all day-everyday, a .002 reaction time and a near perfect 8.902 E.T and with the feat, sent Matt Hartzell and his .027 light to go under the index. Next Boutté would move on to shut down Ohio's Jim Howe by taking a .026 starting line advantage and when the numbers came up on the board, it was really easy to see the story of where the race started and ended after both driver's posted identical 8.909 runs. That moved Boutté onto the day all racers want to be present and still in the running- Sunday. For round four, Boutté's years of driving experience came into play when he met up with Robert Naber, who had been very good on the tree throughout the event. Naber managed to get the head start, but Boutté kept it close and let Naber go at the finish line to stay on the good side of a double breakout and on to the quarter-finals to meet up with Justin Lamb. Much like the round before, Boutté may have been behind at the hit, but his consistency and sharp driving skills paid off when he took the win light over Lamb, 8.910 to 8.929.
Luck continued to shine down on Boutté and his borrowed power plant in the semi-finals when his competitor Bobby Mirizio just couldn't wait on the green and turned it .005 red. Boutté shot on down the quarter mile with a nice 8.892, letting his next round competition know that he could not only get there but was more than ready to battle it out for the Wally. "I had a lot of tough racers to get by to get to the final round, Lamb, Naber, Hartzell," Boutté noted. "Every Super Comp racer, no matter who you are, we're all capable of 'double-oh' on the tree and 'oh' at the other end, but I just made fewer mistakes than my opponents. I guess that's just the best way to put it." Seeing your little driver's win light come on in a NHRA National event final round can be one of the most indescribable feelings, but when you get to look at it the big one near the scoreboards all the way down the quarter-mile, well that is just too much fun and Boutté got to enjoy all 8.898 seconds of it after Steve Whitfield left .004 too early. "You know it was pretty interesting," he confessed. "I borrow a motor, I put a wider wheel on the car but everything else was pretty much the same, same transmission, yes a different converter and the car was just right there. But I have to say that it's twenty years of experience that allowed me to be able to know what to do with this combination and it worked. My sixty foot only moved three-thousandths all day on Sunday until the final." "Even though I wasn't using my motor, it was still protected with the brand new K&N reusable, washable oil filter and I have K&N air filters on everything I own and drive, right down to the rig that gets me to and from the events. I wouldn't have it any other way," he added. Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world. |
