Grandpa did it, Dad did it, and now the third generation of the Hord drag racing family has their own claim to fame.
Ricky Hord, the newest generation of the Maximum Effort racing team, scored his first pole position and did so in the Factory Stock Showdown competition at the Las Vegas NHRA Four-Wide Nationals. Hord powered his Chevrolet COPO Camaro to No. 1 qualifier on the strength of his third-round pass of 7.939 seconds at 172.54 mph. The run moved the driver from Orlando, Fla., into the top spot around provisional No. 1 David Janac. Hord will lead a tough Factory Stock field into eliminations in front of No. 2 qualifier Mark Pawuk and his Dodge Drag Pak, the Gatornationals winner and Winternationals runner-up. After he had secured the quickest run of the weekend Hord was all smiles talking about the accomplishment.
“It’s a good feeling and we’ve been working really hard the last couple of seasons,” said Hord, who is a relative newcomer. “This is only my third season running any kind of car let alone a Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown car. It felt good to come out and run well. We had some issues in Pomona, and the car was kind of all over the place, so it felt good to come back and make ‘A to B’ passes in every run at the four wide. To be the No. 1 qualifier is awesome.”
Hord is of good drag racing genes as his previous generations were significant players in NHRA’s Competition Eliminator, the former NHRA Jr. Pro Stock division known as Factory Modified and most recently Pro Modified. His dad Rick is racing in the Factory X division this weekend.
If there’s one trait that was passed down to Hord, it’s the ability to adapt to change.
“It’s hard to stage four cars at the same time anyways, and you have some guys that have never done it before,” said Hord. “I’ve only done it twice now so it’s a little bit of a trip to look around and try to figure out how everything works. It will make for an exciting race day. I want to thank everyone on my team for all their hard work. Keeping up with the information to run in four different lanes isn’t easy, but it makes it pretty fun.” Hord will be looking to chase the Flexjet $1,000 bounty from Stephen Bell, who won the Winternationals during the final qualifying session today and will enter the race as the No. 6 qualifier. Bell added the win to his runner-up finish and Pawuk would be considered favorites to take home a second win of the year.
“The four-wide nationals is just pretty interesting because you don’t have to be the best; you just want to be one of the first two guys to the finish line,” said Bell. “If you are one or two in the first couple of rounds you are doing well and then you have the final which is a free-for-all. I’m just going to try to get in the car and do my job tomorrow. I’ve got the best crew with Aaron and Greg Stanfield. We have a lot of fun and I’m just happy for everyone on my team that we got one win and we get the chance to go after another one tomorrow.”
David Janac was the provisional No. 1 qualifier after Friday’s lone session posting a time of 7.984 seconds at171.27 mph. Right behind Janac and his Janac Brothers Chevrolet COPO Camaro sits fellow Camaro racers Scott Libersher, Ricky Hord and Lee Hartman. Mark Pawuk was the best Dodge Drag Pak sitting sixth after the first session running 8.034 seconds at 171.86 mph.
Final eliminations will take place tomorrow starting at 10 a.m. PST from The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
