Wurtzel Lands Upset Among NHRA Route 66 Nationals

Kyle Wurtzel competed this past weekend in the NHRA Route 66 Nationals. (Photo provided by Paul Kohler)
JOLIET, Ill. – He may not have won the title, but Warsaw’s Kyle Wurtzel made his presence known at last weekend’s NHRA Route 66 Nationals.
Wurtzel, a No. 15 seed in the top fuel dragster series, upset No. 2 seed Brittany Force in the qualifying race. Wurtzel got his dragster to fly 303.03 miles per hour to run the strip at 3.926 seconds to beat Force’s 239.06, 4.292. Wurtzel would lose to Leah Pritchett, 3.929 – 5.171 in the quarterfinals, Wurtzel not getting his car up to speed from the start.
Pritchett would eventually lose to Route 66 champion Clay Millican (3.894, 289.32) in the finals.
“We had a great weekend at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals in Joliet,” said Wurtzel via his blog. “We were thrilled to win our first round against Brittany Force and can not thank all of our fans enough for their cheers, tweets, Facebook posts, etc.
“We are still learning the tuning curve for the 6 disk clutch, but we are getting really close to having a more consistent (and faster!) car. A big thank you to our crew, who work tirelessly every race!”
Wurtzel, who is from and based out of Warsaw, has raced top fuel dragsters since 2010.