R2B2 Team Manager Frank Hawley and longtime drag racing instructor Frank Hawley, one in the same, had a chance to try out one of the teams Pro Mod cars at a recent test session at Valdosta.

“I think to fully understand and be able to comment on other people's driving, you should get a chance to do it yourself,” said Hawley. “Roger was gracious enough to let me make a few runs in one of his cars. It's very, very different, as I expected it would be. I didn't expect it to be without challenge. I've got a tremendous amount of respect for the cars and the drivers who drive these things. One of the things I want to do is to be very careful. I think that one of the things that helped me was that they're not incredibly fast compared to fuel cars, but as for how much different the car feels and reacts, I knew it would be different, but I didn't know how different until I actually got in and felt the car. When it doesn't go the way it should be going, it's pretty darn obvious, and you don't need anybody to tell you that this isn't going real good right now.

R2B2 Team Manager Frank Hawley and longtime drag racing instructor Frank Hawley, one in the same, had a chance to try out one of the teams Pro Mod cars at a recent test session at Valdosta.

“I think to fully understand and be able to comment on other people's driving, you should get a chance to do it yourself,” said Hawley. “Roger was gracious enough to let me make a few runs in one of his cars. It's very, very different, as I expected it would be. I didn't expect it to be without challenge. I've got a tremendous amount of respect for the cars and the drivers who drive these things. One of the things I want to do is to be very careful. I think that one of the things that helped me was that they're not incredibly fast compared to fuel cars, but as for how much different the car feels and reacts, I knew it would be different, but I didn't know how different until I actually got in and felt the car. When it doesn't go the way it should be going, it's pretty darn obvious, and you don't need anybody to tell you that this isn't going real good right now.

“It was cool, it brought back memories of me racing my alcohol Funny car years ago, where you'd get to rev the engine up and shift it. That was pretty neat. Overall, I'm really glad I had the opportunity, and given a chance to maybe do something like this again, I think I'd like to pursue it. They're challenging cars, they're exciting cars to drive, and of course a really big part of R2B2 Racing is the Pro Mod program, so it was a great opportunity.”

Team driver Melanie Troxel once called the Pro Mod vehicles "angry little race cars,” and Hawley's assessment after driving one himself was somewhat along those same lines.

“They're inherently unforgiving when things don't go well,” he said. “When this car spins and shakes, the ability to recover quickly and nicely from it is not as easy to do as it is in some of the other cars. What I think that should amount to for a new driver, and I would consider myself a new driver in one of these, is some aborted runs. When it's not going well, you need to step off of the gas and take a look at the data, talk to the crew chief, evaluate your performance, and give it another try. I tried to pursue it as a fact finding mission, as intellectually as I could, as opposed to going to somehow tame the beast. That wasn't in my mind at all.”

At this point, there isn't another test session scheduled for Hawley.

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