Top Fuel racer Austin Prock never has telegraphed the slightest bit of self-doubt, and even though he has sat out the past two seasons, he’s showing no signs of it as he returns in the Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist Dragster.
 
“I think our car will be able to race with the best of ’em. We have every piece of the puzzle to go out there and succeed. There’s no doubt in my mind we can go out and contend for a championship,” the 26-year-old who’s youngest in the class said. “We’ve got a great group of crew members put together. I can’t wait to get back into that competition mindset and go out there and [drive] to the best of my ability. And we’ll see how the cards fall.” 

Prock was the quickest of PRO Nitro Spring Training testing on Saturday, and the third quickest overall of the event thanks to a Saturday afternoon 3.685, 333.66.

Prock, the 2019 NHRA rookie of the year, said, “There’ll be a lot of good energy going around. The race car can feel that. And I think that’s going to lead us to some success. All of us racers are a little bit superstitious. But if you get a group together that has good energy and you’re all on the same page, I believe that you perform a lot better. You all have the same mindset, and you work better together. With that mindset, you don’t make as many mistakes, and that’s exactly what we’re putting together.” 

He has Rahn Tobler sharing tuning duties with Joe Barlam, and Prock said the addition of Tobler was a bit of a coup.

“I was pushing so hard to get Rahn Tobler. I thought he’d be a good pairing with Joe Barlam. They’ll be a good yin and yang,” Prock said. “Barlam’s a fairly aggressive tuner, and Rahn’s a very smart racer when it comes down to Sunday. His record speaks for itself. So they’re going to be a great pairing. I can’t believe that I have that caliber of crew chiefs going into my second full season, especially for Rahn coming out of retirement to come be a part of my team and our operation. So I’m really looking forward to it.

“I just can’t wait to be back,” he said. “We’re building beautiful race cars. I put my blood, sweat, and tears into these cars, making them as nice as possible and as light as possible.”

He raced last January at the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals at Tulsa, then made a cameo appearance on track at the June NHRA race at Norwalk, Ohio (where he advanced to the semifinals). Otherwise, he spent his timex out of the cockpit working with elite crew-chief dad Jimmy Prock on Robert Hight’s Funny Car.

As satisfying as it was to work alongside his father, and as proud as he is to have learned the intricacies of a supercharger by building and improving them for John Force Racing, that wasn’t what moved the needle for him.

“This is my lifelong dream. I got to live out my dream at 23 years old in 2019, and when that got taken away from me, it made me depressed, honestly,” Prock said. “It was tough going out to the racetrack and watching all my peers go and do what I love to do. So I’m happy to be back.”

“I worked with my dad, which was really cool. It’s something that not many people get the opportunity to do. Sometimes it can be hard working with family. We didn’t argue once,” Austin Prock said. 

Jimmy Prock kept his position as three-time Funny Car champion Robert Hight’s crew chief, but brothers Thomas and Sam are joining him on his team as clutch specialists, and experienced sprint-car driver Colton Maroney, son of fellow Top Fuel racer Jim Maroney, will handle [piston] racks and cylinder heads. “And,” he said, “Rahn Tobler’s a family friend of ours. And Joe Barlam, he’s a great friend of mine.”

So it’s a family atmosphere at the Prock pit. Even if it weren’t, Prock is thrilled – grateful – to come back. Before he took to the Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park dragstrip, he said, “I can’t wait to stand on the gas again. It’s been way too long. Two years was a long time to sit around and wonder if I was ever going to do it again. Now I’m back.”

The day he announced that his deal was finalized, Prock said he was “like, shaking right now, just talking about it.”

Team owner John Force said that after he had to park Prock’s dragster, “I fought to get it back, because I promised the Prock family. And Frank Tiegs made that possible.”

Tiegs also owns Flav-R-Pac Fruits and Vegetables. His companies will rotate primary sponsorship of Brittany Force’s dragster, as well. Tiegs’ Flav-R-Pac also is the title sponsor for the July 29-31 Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways, near Seattle.

He said, “It’s great to be involved with a second dragster at John Force Racing and to have Austin back with Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist, the brands that started his career. It was exciting watching Austin race in his rookie season. And now, having Brittany under Flav-R-Pac, too, it’s going to be a fun year. I have a lot to look forward to with two dragsters in the hunt for a championship.”

Drag-racing legend Don Prudhomme paired Tiegs with Force to fund Prock’s rookie season, and Force called it “a great partnership in 2019,” with “so much room to grow. Now we’re able to start that process. I’m really looking forward to seeing what that team does with Joe Barlam, who was on my car last year, and Rahn Tobler handling the tuning duties. It’s going to be pretty exciting to see how this partnership grows.”

Austin Prock said before he left Indianapolis earlier this week that he couldn’t “wait to get to the Phoenix test and start burning some nitro again. I just can’t wait to strap into that thing again. I’ll finally be back at home.”

And this time he arrived with plenty of time to make some shakedown runs without chaos, unlike in his rookie year. For the second straight time, Prock has found out late in the offseason that he will have a ride. But this time he had about a month’s notice. In 2019, he had only a few days to grab his gear, get here to Chandler, Ariz., and make a few passes before heading to Pomona to qualify for his Winternationals career debut.

“This is the most prepared we’re going into a season – and we still got a late start. We only found out we’re racing a couple of Mondays ago. To get the crew members and the team we have on such late notice, that says a lot. The first time we went racing was a thrash to get it together – and we still had success. Now we’re the most prepared we’ve ever been, and I think it’s going to show in our performance.”