Steve Jackson, powered to the qualifying lead Friday during the NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series portion of the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. This weekend’s Pro Mod racing, presented by Jerry Bickel Race Cars, Inc., is the first of 12 events on the season.

Jackson made his NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series debut in his ‘17 Camaro and raced to the top qualifying position with his track record elapsed time pass of 5.781-seconds at 251.58 mph.

"It's awesome, I mean, we got here just hoping to qualify. And everybody always says that, but we picked the car up six or seven days ago,” Jackson said. “I told the guys before we took it and tested it we wanted to try and qualify 16th and get beat first round and we'd call it a success. We took it out. First round down the track in Bradenton two days ago, it ran good. So we got here, I told the boys, I don't want to just qualify - I want to qualify in the top half. After the first run today I thought we were gonna go to the front. We had it real wicked up there. I wasn't going up there to putt it up to the green, I was going to knock it in the hole from about 300 yards out."

Defending NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series world champion Rickie Smith is third with his run of 5.800 at 252.00. Sidnei Frigo is second with a 5.795 pass at 256.70. Currently the field is the quickest in the history of the NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series with Kevin Fiscus currently qualified with a time of 5.882 seconds in the 16th position.

Pro Mod Series qualifying will continue at approximately 1:45 p.m. on Saturday with the first round of eliminations at 4:15 p.m.

 
Friday's results after the first two of three rounds of qualifying for the 48th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. The race is the first of 12 events in the NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series.  Qualifying will continue Saturday for Saturday's first round of eliminations.
 

Pro Modified -- 1. Steve Jackson, Chevy Camaro, 5.781, 251.58; 2. Sidnei Frigo, Chevy Corvette, 5.795, 256.70; 3. Rickie Smith, Camaro, 5.800, 253.47; 4. Mike Janis, Camaro, 5.803, 248.25; 5. Steven Whiteley, Cadillac CTS-V, 5.805, 251.58; 6. Danny Rowe, Corvette, 5.815, 252.14; 7. Khalid alBalooshi, Camaro, 5.820, 251.16; 8. Steve Matusek, Camaro, 5.821, 253.85; 9. Troy Coughlin, Corvette, 5.828, 253.33; 10. Kevin Rivenbark, Corvette, 5.836, 246.17; 11. Shannon Jenkins, Ford Mustang, 5.838, 249.35; 12. Todd Tutterow, Camaro, 5.845, 248.39; 13. Jim Whiteley, Chevy Chevelle, 5.848, 215.75; 14. Michael Biehle, Mustang, 5.854, 251.81; 15. Dan Stevenson, Camaro, 5.881, 250.88; 16. Kevin Fiscus, Mustang, 5.882, 248.25.  Not Qualified: 17. Bob Rahaim, 5.888, 246.62; 18. Chuck Little, 5.939, 236.55; 19. Kenny Lang, 5.953, 243.63; 20. Doug Winters, 6.005, 213.06; 21. Clint Satterfield, 6.103, 243.99; 22. Ruben Tetsoshvili, 6.203, 243.33; 23. Pete Farber, 6.611, 145.74; 24. Eric Latino, 7.760, 141.11; 25. Chip King, 7.880, 112.08; 26. Mike Castellana, 8.748, 104.38; 27. Shane Molinari, 11.507, 93.75.