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  • Deja Vu Showgirls Backs Leah Pruett- LeDuc at the Bakersfield March Meet
  • Leah Pruett-Leduc Wins the March Meet
  • Leah to Debut in the Nitro Funny Car Class at the 2009 Pomona World Finals
  • The Heart-Breaker Funny Car Returns - In a Record Breaking 250 MPH Time
  • Racing the Holy Toledo FC at the March Meet

The Heart-Breaker Funny Car Returns - In a Record Breaking 250 MPH Time

Sacramento, CA (June 29, 2009) - Nostalgia Funny Car driver Leah Pruett-LeDuc became the first person in history to reach 250 mph in a Nostalgia Funny Car. The record breaking run took place at Sacramento Raceway’s 33rd Annual Nitro Nite of Fire on Saturday, where she posted a 6.07 et at 250.37 mph in round one eliminations.

The interesting and unpredictable partnership between Leah Pruett-Leduc and Lee Jennings Sr. was the combination for this success. Leah, a familiar face and proven driver among the funny car ranks was in need of an engine for her family’s “Heart-Breaker” 1969 Mach 1 Mustang nostalgia funny car.

Lee Jennings Sr., a long time drag racer and funny car team owner is currently repairing his funny car chassis and body after a crash, leaving him with an entire engine setup, and no funny car to put it in at the moment. With both Lee and Leah’s passion to get back to racing, they teamed up putting Lee’s engine in the Heart-Breaker car and were on their way to Sacramento Raceway.

Local media also came to Sacramento Raceway Park to cover the excitement and get a taste of nitro. KCRA TV Channel 3, an NBC affiliate, featured Leah Pruett- LeDuc LIVE on their 6 AM, 7 AM, and 8 AM shows, along with Mark Sander’s impressively long burnout in his nostalgia funny car for the 250,000 viewers to see.

The nitro burning action began for the eight car field on Friday night with round one of qualifying. Under the sunset sky and 90 degree temperatures, Leah posted a 5.93 et (elapse time) at 249.42 mph, qualifying her in the second position behind Garret Bateman’s 5.85 et at 240 mph.

The second, and final round of qualifying took place at 1 PM Saturday afternoon during the heat of day with air temperatures hovering around 107 degrees, with undesired track temperature at 140 degrees. The Heart-Breaker funny car could not improve it’s time, and remained the number two qualifier.

First round of eliminations took place at a somewhat cooler time of the day, 5 PM, where Leah Pruett- LeDuc and her HeartBreaker Mustang matched up against number seven qualifier Josh Crawford in his ‘69 Mustang. Josh left the starting line before the green light came on, resulting in a foul and automatic round win for Leah. There was success for Leah and the Jennings team on both sides of the track as the Heart-Breaker car crossed the finish line at over 250.37 mph, becoming the first Nostalgia Funny Car to do so in history.

“I couldn’t be happier with the partnership between the Jennings team and myself. It was obviously a perfect combination of my car and Lee Jennings’ engine setup and team coming together to make the record breaking run,” said Leah Pruett-LeDuc.

Excitement of the broken speed record flooded throughout the pit as the teams prepared for the second round of eliminations. Leah Pruett-LeDuc faced the always competitive racer Dennis LaCharite in his ‘69 GTO flopper in front of the packed grand stands at 8:30 PM. The reaction times of both racers were almost identical, but it was Leah who crossed the finish stripe first running a 6:13 et to Dennis’s 6.23 et.

With the overwhelming success of Steve Plueger’s funny cars, it was not unexpected for Garrett Bateman to be in the final round in the “Plueger & Gyger” ‘71 Mustang against Leah Pruett-LeDuc. The final round was not only a battle of the Ford Mustangs, but also the closest race of the event with Leah taking the hole shot reaction time advantage of a .079 to Garrett’s .161.  However, it was not enough as Garrett crossed the finish line first running a 5.96 et to Leah’s 6.06 et, leaving a margin of victory only .018 of a second.

“The final round against the Plueger & Gyger car was not only special because it was my first final round in the Nostalgia Funny Car class, but because I had once been the driver of that car and for that team, and I wanted to prove that we could beat them. Unfortunately the Heartbreaker car could not out run their quick et. I thought my high mph was going to help me drive around him at the finish, instead I was about a foot behind at the stripe” said Leah Pruett-LeDuc.

There is a growing possibility that Leah Pruett-Leduc and Lee Jennings Sr. will maintain their partnership through the next NHRA Heritage Series race in Boise ID, August 15.

Leah Pruett-LeDuc would like to thank Lee Jennings Sr. for the this racing opportunity, in addition to: Coast Airbrush, Iwata Medea, Artool, Ringers Gloves, and Mickey Thompson Tires.