Hope and Hammock finish strong in 2009

POMONA, Calf. -- The 45th annual Automobile Club of Southern California Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomonais over marking the end of the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing season. For the Vroom Racing Pro Stock Motorcycle team, the season ended on an upward swing.

For the last four races, the S&S powered Buell was consistent. Team owner, John Hammock, had the bike running strong and rider, David Hope, was at his best. In qualifying, the bike ran a 7.054 at 188.41 mph, a 7.050 at 187.08 mph, an impressive 6.992 at 186.95 mph and wrapped it up with a 7.026 at 189.15 mph. This gave Hope the No. 11 qualifying position.

In the first round of action, Hope took on Craig Treble. Hope left on Treble and easily got the win with his best run of the weekend, a 6.986 at 187.70 mph. In the second round, Hope's opponent was Rookie of the Year candidate, Douglas Horne. The two left the line at the same time but Hope didn't have enough to hold off Horne. He slowed to a 7.028 against Horne's 6.993.

The weekend was a fitting finale to a tumultuous year for the relatively young team. They may have struggled early on but their hard work and determination paid off with obvious improvement.

"This weekend leaves me feeling positive about our year," said Hope. "We left off on a good note and proved our consistency. I develop myself more and more every time I go down the track. John is putting a good bike under me so that allows me to go out and do my job. That creates a team environment to where we're running strong and that's what we need to go rounds. And the past four races we've proven that. We've proven we can run with the best and we've put up some numbers that have left us satisfied. Sure, you always want that next round but we've come a long way from where we were at the beginning of the season. And we have to feel good about that.

"I'm most definitely sorry to see the year end, especially when you start to get in a groove and things that you've been working so hard for start to come together. And then, oh, we have to put on the brakes. That doesn't mean that we're going to sit idle over the winter. You can't sit idle over the winter and be competitive coming into next season. I know John has a lot of work already lined out for us and he's going to take the grunt of that because I work full time. But at the same time, I'm anxious to get back on the bike already. But I can sit back and reflect on our year and feel good about where we've been and about where we're going and that's important to me."