Excited Pappas Ready To Keep Belt Around His Waist

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It was late on Tuesday and Spiro Pappas had just finished a long, exhausting day.But there was a hint of energy and a bit of a spark in his voice, and it was almost like he wasn’t ready for the night to end.Pappas, though, will be plenty pleased if his latest string of testing success carries over to Friday’s Speedtech “Battle For The Belts” at the LenMar Motorsports ADRL World Finals VI.After a season filled with struggles - some that were admittedly his own doing - Pappas, the No. 6 qualifier in the eight-car field, finally feels ready to defend his Extreme 10.5 2009 World Championship.The excited tone in his voice despite the late hour simply gave further evidence to that notion.“We were testing to see if things are back to where we want to be and it went better than we expected,” said Pappas, who tested Tuesday in Wisconsin. “Things went really, really well.“As a driver, I’m ready and my team is ready. Everything is coming together and it’s coming together at the prime time. (Tuesday) proved to us that we have what it takes to keep the belt one more year.”That’s an encouraging sign for Pappas, who won Simpson Dragstock VII in September to create some momentum heading into Friday’s festivities at Texas Motorplex.Pappas and his team had focused everything on the final two months of the season, but it was an eye-opening process to get here - and it included a lot more work than Pappas initially expected.After the first race of the season in March at Houston Raceway Park, Pappas set a goal of wanting to get in the 3.79 range by the end of the year.But it took some serious soul-searching for Pappas and his team to realize what they were doing in the middle of the season wasn’t cutting it.“Throughout the season, we got lazy and we would say, ‘Oh, it’s too hot or it’s too this or too that.’ Everyone on the team, including myself, was not taking it seriously,” Pappas said. “We changed so many things in the car, we were using qualifying and even eliminations to learn all the new data.“It was not a good effort and we got out what we put in it.”A number of early-round exits were the stunning result and it wasn’t until late in the 2010 regular season that Pappas knew something had to change.With Chuck Ulsch posting a world-record speed in winning the Gateway Drags, Gary White posting impressive results and both Dan Millen and Billy Glidden reaching the 3-second mark, Pappas knew it was time to go to work.“Seeing other cars come along, it kind of woke us up. A 3.90 is not going to win it anymore,” Pappas said. “Seeing all that got our butts in gear.“We’ve pretty much been testing for the past eight weeks. We’ve seen a lot of progress and we’re very much looking forward to this race. The motivation within our team is beyond what I expected. We’re all fired up for this.”The numerous testing sessions have Pappas and his 2009 GXP on the right path, and a pass in the 3.70-range might not be out of the equation.Of course, after Millen went 3.78 in Norwalk, Pappas won’t be the first to reach the mark, but he’s simply excited to be racing among such a talented field.Pappas also insists having so many standout drivers in XTF means there’s less pressure on him to repeat his World Championship.“There’s always pressure in racing because we all want to win, but knowing that Millen and others have ran better, it takes some off. That’s the way I look at it,” Pappas said. “This is a fun class and a tough class, but also a motivating class. There’s so many different car and combinations, and it really keeps you on edge.”Pappas will have to be ready immediately as he will face off against Ulsch in one of the marquee first-round matchups.Ulsch has won two of the last three ADRL events - Pappas sandwiched his win between Ulsch’s - but Pappas will be prepared.“Can we rise to the occasion? The occasion has come and now we’re going to see if we can accomplish what we’re there to accomplish,” Pappas said. “It’s going to take a lot more effort to repeat what we did last year. It’s a tougher field, but we’re ready for it.” (Photos by ADRL/Richards)

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