Austin Prock, the son of world championship NHRA crew chief Jimmy Prock, will take the next step in his drag racing career April 9 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Prock is scheduled to do his inaugural testing in a nitro Funny Car when he gets behind the wheel of the Advance Auto Parts Chevy Camaro driven by Courtney Force. The elder Prock is a crew chief for reigning NHRA nitro Funny Car world champ Robert Hight at John Force Racing.

“I’m probably going to make two or three squirts, so they can see if I can stage and leave straight and things like that,” said Prock, 22. “This is a dream come true. My whole life I wanted to be a professional race car driver, and this is the next step in that direction. I can’t wait until Monday.”

This season, Austin’s primary job is building superchargers for reigning Top Fuel world champion Brittany Force.

“I love building superchargers, but I love driving even more,” Austin said. “This is the next step for me. I’m trying to keep this out of my head that I will be testing in a nitro Funny Car, but I’m sure when I get strapped in Monday in that 11,000-horsepower machine I will have some butterflies in my stomach. I heard they have been talking for a few weeks about me getting to test in a nitro Funny Car and Wednesday (April 4) when the team was making some test runs at Bakersfield, Robert Hight told me I was going to make some test hits Monday, that was cool. This is something I worked my whole life for.”

In 2014, Austin competed in the USAC National Midget Pavement class, then the Dirt Midgets (2015) and Dirt Sprint Cars (2016). He drove for Tony Stewart Racing.

“My dad (Jimmy) has given me some pointers about driving a nitro Funny Car,” Austin said. “He has worked with some of the best drivers in the world in John Force, Robert Hight and Jack Beckman. I’m sure he will offer me more advice once I start driving more. It’s really cool to get to race but it means even more when you get to do it with your family.”