When Charlie Westcott Jr. made the decision to move to NHRA’s Pro Stock class, he knew there were going to be some bumps in the road.

Westcott Jr. definitely went through some growing pains when he made his debut at the Summernationals last weekend in Englishtown, N.J.

“I was going to make my debut wherever I was ready for and I had tested previously and I had what were fairly good results and had been on the dyno with the thing since the first of January,” Westcott Jr. said. “We went and tested at 131 (Motorsports Park in Martin, Mich.) two or three times. The first day we went over there to (131) I went a 76 in average weather. So, I went over to Englishtown fully expecting to go that fast if the weather was better over there and the car shook the tires four out of five runs. Then on the fourth run, I did get down, but it wasn’t that great.”

Westcott Jr. qualified No. 15 with a 6.883-second lap at 203.25 mph in his Militia Racing Products Mustang. In doing so, Westcott Jr. became the 444th driver to qualify for an NHRA Pro Stock field.

Westcott’s race day was short-lived as his car got real loose shortly after he left the starting line in round one and he lost to eventual race winner Greg Anderson.

“(Last weekend) kind of opened my eyes that Martin, Mich., is a different track than Englishtown for sure,” Westcott Jr. said. “I have some suspension issues to work through mainly. The motor seems to be doing OK. I just have to work on getting the car to go down the track right so I’m evaluating that right now. I wanted to go to Englishtown and make some runs and try and learn. I didn’t get to learn what I wanted to learn, but I learned things that I didn’t know I needed to learn.”

Westcott acknowledged what transpired for him in Englishtown caught him off-guard.

“It was really weird because I made probably 25 runs on this car and it never shook once,” Westcott Jr. said. “I didn’t even know what that was like. Luckily that didn’t happen the first time or two I drove this car because I might have had a different outlook on things. This car went down the track and it’s fast and things are happening fast, but it was never out of control or scary. Then over at Englishtown, I launched the car and it was like an earthquake in the car and then you put it in second and it’s like another earthquake. It’s just weird. You have to experience it to know what it’s like and I was kind of surprised when you watch the video from outside the car, it doesn’t look like that. But, it shook so bad that it busted two of the air fittings that go to the shocks and in the first round when I ran Greg it shook and busted the wheelie bar, so I have to fix that. It was fairly extreme and it was new to me, but I’m sure everybody who races a Pro Stock car has experienced that multiple times, but that was my first time, so that’s why it was kind of a surprise.”

Prior to moving to Pro Stock, Wescott Jr. was a dominant force in the Mopar HEMI Challenge for over a decade. In October of 2014, Wescott Jr. purchased the late Jim Cunningham’s Ford Mustang chassis – a Jerry Haas chassis - and that’s what he’s racing in Pro Stock. Westcott’s business – Militia Racing Products – based in Parma, Mich., is supplying the engine power.

Despite his struggles at Englishtown, Westcott Jr. is still forging ahead.

“I’m planning on going to Norwalk (Ohio) (June 23-26) and I want to go to Chicago (July 7-10),” he said. “This is all different. All the changes in Pro Stock (in 2016) didn’t really impact me that much. My first engine I built last year was with carburetors and I tested it a little bit and got my feet wet. I knew I was going to have to redo everything anyway because that was my first engine. Basically, I did a new set of heads over the winter and made three intake manifolds and I’m just experimenting with the EFI and getting comfortable with all that. I wanted to this (race Pro Stock) because I think I can be somewhat competitive at it, but it’s not going to happen at the first four or five races. This is a learning experience and I didn’t win the first HEMI race I went to either. This is ongoing, and I understand that and I’m OK with that.”