No one can say Brad Personett is afraid to take chances.

Personett, who made a name for himself in the NHRA Pro Mod ranks, took center stage Friday morning at the Street Car Super Nationals.

Personett set a new world record with a 6.088-second elapsed time at 250.37 mph on a 10.5-inch tire during the first round of Pro Street qualifying Friday morning.

Personett, however, wasn’t celebrating when he came back to the pits because he was concerned he hurt his engine on the record pass.

No one can say Brad Personett is afraid to take chances.

Personett, who made a name for himself in the NHRA Pro Mod ranks, took center stage Friday morning at the Street Car Super Nationals.

Personett set a new world record with a 6.088-second elapsed time at 250.37 mph on a 10.5-inch tire during the first round of Pro Street qualifying Friday morning.

Personett, however, wasn’t celebrating when he came back to the pits because he was concerned he hurt his engine on the record pass.

“The car backfired and I can’t find out what it did,” said Personett, who is third on the Pro Street qualifying ladder. “Then, it instantly goes into my head that I hurt my sh*t. Everything is OK. But, those things don’t happen without a reason. It will show up soon or later and I just hope it doesn’t happen two runs or three runs from now.”

Personett, who was racing with the Mickey Thompson 10.5-inch tires for the first time on his turbo powered 1968 Camaro, wasn’t surprised what the tire did on his car.

“That tire is amazing,” said Personett, who lives in Elkhart, Ind. “Everybody has known that for a long time. I’m not really surprised that we set a world record for that tire (10.5-inch), but we were not expecting to figure it out overnight. We’re just gradually walking into this thing. We are not trying to tip it upside down. This is the first time in a long time I have run a 10.5-inch tire.”

Personett chose to try the smaller 10.5-inch tires because of the rules in the Pacific Street Car Association.

“If you run 10.5-inch tires in Pro Street it is a 200-pound weight deduction,” Personett said. “There is all this other bullsh*t penalty-wise. Here is the base weight, this size turbo you have to add this much weight. Another size turbo add this much weight. I’m running Pro Street with 10.5s (tires), so I do not have to pile 200 pounds of lead into the car. If I ran the big tire in Pro Street, I would have to add that weight. I had to add some weight to meet the rules to run the 10.5 tires, but not a person and a half. I have turbos and parts in the trailer to where I would not have to put so much weight into it (the car), but I do not want to do it. It’s a lot of work to tear them apart and change them and that’s something we should be doing back in the shop, not in the trailer. So, I would rather do this (run 10.5-inch tires).”

Personett ran a 6.12-second time at 238.66 mph on his second qualifying run.

“This is a pretty big challenge and gets us exposure,” Personett said. “Look, you had to come over and talk about it with me.”

Personett  finished third in the point standings in the NHRA’s inaugural Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series behind Von Smith and Danny Rowe. Personett did win the NHRA’s Pro Mod season-finale at Las Vegas last month.

“As of right now the plan is for us to race in the Get Screened America Pro Mod Series again next year,” Personett said. “For year No. 1, only great things can come out of it for years two, three, four and five. The economy is making a turn and we will get more sponsors and a better TV package.”

Personett also said he has no plans of competing in the American Drag Racing League.

“We have got a Sherman Tank and those (ADRL) guys are racing beer cans,” Personett said. “That’s just the way it is and their race is half as long. Rules are rules and my car is built around (NHRA) rules. My car is 250 to 350 pounds heavier than the average guy out there (in the ADRL).

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