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Jordan Pratt has already survived a blown engine, a cross-country championship chase and a Las Vegas Nationals final that slipped away by six-thousandths of a second. Now he’s won his opening round at the season’s final NHRA Pacific Division event, and the Super Gas world championship is getting closer.
Pratt advanced through Saturday’s first round at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and will face Ed Olpin in the second round. The 28-year-old second-generation racer entered the weekend knowing a fourth-round appearance could settle the championship without having to carry the fight to next weekend’s NHRA Finals in Pomona.
Former Pro Stock and Comp Eliminator world champion Bo Butner remains Pratt’s only mathematical obstacle. Butner must reach the final to keep his championship hopes alive if Pratt fails to advance far enough to clinch.
“I try not to spend too much mental power on the calculations and would rather use that bandwidth on making a good run in my lane,” Pratt said. “This whole year, I’ve been aware of the points but just more focused on putting up a good score, myself.”
Pratt has made it clear he isn’t interested in racing Butner on a calculator. He has enough to worry about in his own lane, beginning with Olpin in the second round.
“I’ve been in this spot before on the divisional side, and I’ve learned what works for me; I do my best when I’m not focusing on other people,” Pratt said. “I just go racing and stick to my routine, and we can do the math after it’s all done.”
That approach nearly delivered another national event victory Monday, when Pratt faced Nick Alejandre in the postponed Super Gas final at the Las Vegas Nationals. Five round wins had put Pratt and the Corvette roadster owned by Jesse and Kelli Smith within one round of a Diamond Wally.
Pratt did his job at the starting line, leaving with a .013 reaction time against Alejandre’s .024. The trouble came at the other end, where Pratt broke out by .006 while Alejandre recorded a winning 10.066 against the adjusted 10.05 index.
“I went up there thinking I would make a good run, and I did — really just fell on the wrong side of a close race,” Pratt said. “The car was going a tick faster than I thought, and in addition to that, I missed my execution a little bit at the finish line.”
The final had been delayed from Sunday evening because of high winds and falling temperatures. Monday’s calmer conditions provided a safe racing surface, but Pratt knew he had let a close one get away.
He also knew the car was capable of winning the championship. Considering what happened three weeks earlier in Dallas, having a competitive race car at all was something Pratt couldn’t take for granted.
The Corvette suffered engine damage during its first qualifying run at Dallas, leaving Pratt without a usable engine and with precious little time to find another. Smith had a repaired spare back home in Wisconsin, but getting it to Texas wasn’t practical.
Pratt figured his Dallas weekend was finished. Smith wasn’t quite ready to accept that answer and asked whether somebody at the track might have an engine available.
Pratt contacted fellow racer Justin Lamb, who directed him to his trailer. Waiting inside was a nearly new spare Super Comp engine belonging to Dylan Hough, and the two racers worked out an arrangement with Smith.
“I told Jesse, ‘You’re a crazy man, but you’re a good man,'” Pratt said. “He’s sacrificed a lot for me to race this car this year, and we’ve had so many different challenges.”
Within an hour, the damaged engine was ready to come out. Hough’s crew and personnel from Scoggin Dickey’s race shop helped with the swap, and Pratt finished installing the replacement around midnight.
He lost in the opening round at Dallas, but those two runs with the new combination proved valuable when the team reached Las Vegas. Without Smith’s willingness to spend the money and the help of Lamb and Hough, Pratt doubts the national event final would have happened.
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Now the same combination has him looking at a world championship. Fiancée Maggie Bentley is handling crew chief duties, while Jesse and Kelli Smith were expected to join the team for Saturday’s eliminations.
Pratt’s father, Bob, has watched the progression from Jr. dragsters through divisional championships and now a shot at the biggest title in NHRA Sportsman racing. For Pratt, the season has already exceeded expectations, regardless of how the remaining rounds unfold.
The championship remains unfinished business, and Pratt still has Olpin standing between him and another round win. After everything it took to get the Corvette to Las Vegas, he’s not interested in looking beyond the next pair of win lights.
“When we picked up the car back in March, [Jesse and Kelli] said, ‘Take this car and go win the world championship,'” Pratt said. “Things just fell into place to get us here. We struggled with multiple engine problems, but it didn’t slow anything down, we just kept moving through it. Whatever happens, this year has been a mega success.”
