Dave Connolly is an NHRA Pro Stock world championship crew chief and a 26-time winner as a Pro Stock driver.
Yet, Connolly wasn’t sure what to expect when he signed on to drive a second car for Matt Hartford at the inaugural Scag Power Equipment PRO Superstar Shootout presented by Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage, Feb. 8-10 in Bradenton, Fla.
Well, he was thrilled with how things unfolded.
Connolly knocked off three opponents – Dallas Glenn, Hartford, and Chris McGaha before falling short in the finals against Erica Enders for the $125,000 payday.
“It was incredible,” Connolly said in an interview with CompetitionPlus.com. “Honestly, PRO and everyone involved did a great job putting that event on, and you could not have asked for better weather. In my case, Bradenton is my hometown now. I had a lot of family and friends in town, so it was cool to go out there and go some rounds. I had a blast just letting the clutch out again. It has been six years since I drove a Pro Stock car, and not many runs in the EFI era. I didn’t even know if I could do a burnout.
“To make the final was good. It was just a one-time deal. That was a deal Greg (Anderson) and Matt Hartford put together last year when they announced this race, and it was for us to learn some stuff on the engine side of things and Matt work out his new hot rod. With the limited runs we got with the car, to make the final was definitely a good showing. I think if we had a little more time with it and myself in the seat for a few more laps, I think we could have put up a little better fight in the final, but it is what it is. Again, it was a good time.”
Connolly, whose main job is as a crew chief for KB Titan Racing, had quite the showing in Bradenton, considering the car he was piloting was a brand-new 2024 Chevy Camaro with zero runs down the track.
“That’s Matt’s brand-new car,” Connolly said. “Everyone at Haas Race Cars thrashed on that car and humped it the last month to get that car ready to do down the racetrack. I think they fired it up (for the first time) the week before they brought it down to Bradenton.”
Connolly, who last competed in NHRA’s Pro Stock class fulltime in 2014, is also an accomplished bracket racer, but he wasn’t sure what his nerves would be in Bradenton when he got in the driver’s seat.
“It’s kind of was like riding a bike,” Connolly said. “Everyone said it was going to be that way, and I had some self-doubt and didn’t know what to expect. It was one of those deals that once you hit the starter switch, and the thing fired up, everything came back and felt relatively comfortable for being out of the seat for that long.”
Since 2014, Connolly’s Pro Stock driving resume consisted of a couple of test runs in 2016 and four runs in 2018 as a fill-in driver in Brainerd, Minn. The versatile Connolly also got a chance to wheel a Top Fuel dragster when he joined Bob Vandergriff’s team. He appeared in three final rounds during the 2015 season.
“It was 2018 that I had last let the clutch out (in a Pro Stock car prior to Bradenton),” Connolly said. “Those things are a little different animal than my 5.60, eighth-mile, ’66 Chevy II Wagon.”
With the PRO Shoot PRO Superstar Shootout in the rear-view mirror, Connolly focuses on being a tuner with KB Titan Racing with Rob Downing and Nate VanWassenhove.
“All three of us are doing six cars this year,” Connolly said. “We are overseeing as a group or committee; however you want to say it, that’s how we have done things at KB as a committee on all the cars. We will have Greg (Anderson), Dallas (Glenn), Camrie (Caruso), Eric Latino, and the two new drivers – Sienna Wildgust and Brandon Foster. Both Sienna and Brandon got licensed in January. Brandon, I think, is committed to at least 15 races, and Sienna is going to 10 to 12 races and looking for more funding for more races.
“Then, we’re (KB Titan Racing) supplying engines to (Matt) Hartford and (Deric) Kramer. The KB engine shop is going to be plenty busy this year.”
Next for KB Titan Racing is the 2024 NHRA Mission Food Drag Racing Series opener – the 55th annual NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., March 7-10.
“NHRA implemented a lot of rule changes on us that (impacted) our package as far as manifold rule changes, that has us in a little bit of a test mode right now,” Connolly said. “The mindset is obviously, I still feel like we have the pieces, parts, and horsepower to go out there and win any event. We are going to go out to Gainesville and try and turn on four win lights on Sunday and take home the trophy.
“The PRO race was definitely let’s see where we are at type of situation, and obviously we can tell with the way that Dallas’ car ran, and he was No. 2 qualifier, and he was low ET first round. Unfortunately for him and fortunate for me (in the first round) he went red, but we know what kind of performances are underneath the hood and we know what we are capable of. I wouldn’t go to the racetrack if I didn’t feel like we had a shot at winning, and obviously we still do.”
