Chris Vang wasn’t worried about making the quickest Pro Stock run of his career Friday at Sonoma Raceway.
The ride to the media center afterward made him far more uncomfortable.
Vang raced to the provisional No. 1 qualifying position with a 6.498-second pass at 209.01 mph during the opening day of qualifying for the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals. The run put him just .001-second ahead of Cody Anderson’s 6.499 and ahead of six-time world champion Erica Enders’ 6.503, positioning the independent racer for what could become the first No. 1 qualifier of his NHRA career.
The performance also earned Vang a $2,500 bonus, a meaningful payday for a team operating on a fraction of the budget of many of its competitors.
“It’s exciting,” Vang said. “Yeah, pretty amazing. Don’t even know how to describe it. We came in here hoping to qualify. There’s always that thought with 18 cars and trying to just make good runs, and we got a great start with Q1. So we knew we had something to work with and just threw a little more at it.”
“We were hoping to go right out of 50, maybe a high 49. So we ran pretty close to what we wanted.”
Vang wasn’t the quickest on Saturday and didn’t need to be. In two sessions, no driver could overtake his Friday mark.
For Vang, the accomplishment was as much about survival as it was speed.
With 18 cars chasing 16 qualifying spots, just making the field was the team’s primary objective when it unloaded at Sonoma. Instead, the small team left Friday sitting atop one of the quickest Pro Stock fields of the season.
Vang also netted the $2,000 GESi Pro Stock No. 1 qualifier bonus, and the bonus money will be put to good use.
He said his team hopes to compete in roughly seven more races this season, and every dollar helps stretch the budget despite backing from Patterson Elite and Prestige.
“It helps a lot,” Vang said. “We’re trying to run about seven more races. So that will be almost all the races the rest of the year. I mean, especially for us, I have great sponsors with Patterson Elite and Prestige, but we don’t have any big sponsor names, so a little bit helps a lot.”
The qualifying run wasn’t what rattled Vang’s nerves.
Instead, it was the short trip to the media center for his first appearance in an NHRA Friday press conference.
“Yeah, for sure,” Vang said when asked about the butterflies. “Never been here before. I mean, even with working with Derek, we were number one a few times, but I never came up to the media center. That was always just his deal. So yeah, definitely butterflies and it’s fun. It’s a new experience.”
Asked whether making a 200-plus-mph run or facing reporters was more intimidating, Vang didn’t hesitate.
“Sitting here for sure.”
The confidence behind the wheel comes from knowing the team arrived with the pieces to contend.
Freshened Elite Racing engines gave Vang reason to believe the car could qualify in the top half of the field, even if No. 1 wasn’t necessarily the expectation.
“Yeah,” Vang said. “We knew we made good power because motors are fresh. We just had Elite fresh in them. They’re our motors, but they’re doing a lot of work on them to try and make them fast. And we knew we made good power.”
“So if we ran good, we knew we should be top half. That was really the hoping for is top half going to Sunday with a little better shot because we haven’t been great at that the last couple of races and it hurts on Sunday.”
Once the car launched, Vang knew almost immediately the run had the potential to be special.
“The run was, I mean, as far as before, it was pretty normal,” Vang said. “I’m just in a nice routine with burnout and everything. We’re a little different this weekend since we don’t have Daria and my wife and Sarah. So I don’t have Daria in front of me. I have Dave instead, which I like looking at my wife more.”
“But I knew the car left and I knew it was going to be on the edge. It’s like if it doesn’t shake, it should be pretty good. And it picked the front end up and it was smooth. So I knew we were on it fast.”
As good as the run appeared, Vang believes there is still more performance available.
He reviewed the data before heading to the media center and came away convinced the combination hasn’t reached its full potential.
“We didn’t get it all. I know that,” Vang said.
