Our good buddy Paul Lee, who heads up McLeod Racing Clutches during the week and gets his jollies stomping his right foot down on an 8,000 horsepower nitro Funny Car on many weekends, was back in the saddle last weekend at the Toyota NHRA Summernationals in Englishtown, N.J. behind the wheel of the Paul Richards-owned Richards Racing Chevrolet Monte Carlo flopper, and ran well enough to hang around for race day.
Lee, who drove the Richards owned Funny Car sporting the McLeod Racing/Lethal Performance/Florida Brake & Truck Parts banners during preseason testing and at the Amalie Motor Oil Gatornationals in Gainesville in March, punched his way into the Sunday racing program with a 15th quick 4.325 at 280.78 mph, that earned him a first round berth against Kalitta Racing driver Del Worsham. Lee carded a 4.74 in Friday’s first session that put him inside the top 12 provisionally, but mechanical issues in the evening session kept the McLeod team from improving, thus ending the night 16th. Lee, Richards, and company turned things around on Saturday morning, though, inching into the field with a 16th-quick 4.38, and bettered it in the final session with the aforementioned 4.32 to move off the bump spot.
Lee was dead even out of the gate with Worsham’s Toyota in the opening round on Sunday morning, but a 4.37 at a slowing 264 mph was no match for Worsham’s quicker 4.15, bringing an abbreviated conclusion to the teams’ weekend. But rest assured the team will be back looking for that win light this season, as Lee is currently entered for the Auto Plus Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in October in the Richards family machine.