When Gary Scelzi announced his intentions to take a sabbatical following the 2007 season, up and coming driver Leah Pruett quickly submitted her resume to team owner Don Schumacher. Her actions netted a test session behind the wheel of the Funny Car normally driven by Jack Beckman.

Pruett never took the experience with visions of grandeur. She used the opportunity to her advantage for nothing more than to give Schumacher an opportunity to evaluate her talent.

When Gary Scelzi announced his intentions to take a sabbatical following the 2007 season, up and coming driver Leah Pruett quickly submitted her resume to team owner Don Schumacher. Her actions netted a test session behind the wheel of the Funny Car normally driven by Jack Beckman.

Pruett never took the experience with visions of grandeur. She used the opportunity to her advantage for nothing more than to give Schumacher an opportunity to evaluate her talent.

“Don never told me ‘hey, you're trying out for a position and told me that a position was available,” Pruett said. “He never got my hopes up. He was always flat out with me and truthful just to make sure that everyone was on the same game plan. I am still working with him. We're still working together and he's still interested in having me around and seeing what else he can do. At this time he is so busy with the chassis for the Funny Cars, how difficult it is and with the possibility of four nitro funny cars on his team I am sure that he has a lot going on. There is work still to come but right now I am so focused on my nostalgia nitro funny car. It's so important for me to just learn the basics of this so I know when I get in Don's car again I will just a little better.”

Pruett is honing her driving skills in the meantime behind the wheel of a nitro-burning 1969 Mustang flopper. She admits this is a big change from the car she drove for Schumacher.

“Everything has been a change from racing my altered, which is a seven second flat car, going straight into Don's Funny Car, now I am stepping back just a little bit and going into the middle,” Pruett explained.

Pruett has tackled the challenge of licensing this weekend in a nostalgia Funny Car head-on. She’s noticed the differences in the two even though her experience in the DSR entry lasted only 200 feet.

“One thing for sure is Don’s car rattles a lot more,” Pruett said. “I mean, it shook bad. When I raced his car I actually had tire shake. Those were some similarities between the tire shake I experienced in my nostalgia car and the tire shake in his. It's the same thing and they react about the same, the steering. Other than that his is a lot louder and a little quicker.”

 

 

Pruett laid down her first full pass in the Mustang with a 6.06 elapsed time before flaming the car in the second. She’s found out that driving a nostalgia flopper can be a handful.

“I got out there and it shook me real bad,” Pruett said of her first run. “I shifted it to get through the tire shake and it made a move out towards the center of the track and I brought it back it, but it reacted so smoothly. You have to be on your toes. You have to be on autopilot.”

Pruett was speaking with greasy hands, effectively qualifying her for being a Funny Car driver cut from the old school mold.

“Our clutch guy was actually a little late by a couple hours this morning,” Pruett said. “My dad and I, we tore every thing apart, got into the clutch and we had to check the flywheel. I was on it about an hour an hour and a half. I actually love getting dirty because you need to know about the car and see how things work to be able to understand and come back to your crew chief and tell them what happened during the run.”